If You're Going My Way
by the white princess
Summary: Lyra 'Lightning' McQueen, rookie sensation and Piston Cup finalist. While on route to compete in a tiebreaker race for the championship Lyra ends up in Radiator Springs, a small forgotten town suddenly in need of a new road. Making friends comes surprisingly easy, proving to the town doctor with a secret that you're sweet on him not so much. Humanized Characters. Rewritten CH 4
1. The Last One You'd Expect

Lyra 'Lightning' McQueen, the rookie sensation and one of the very few female racers to ever make it into the Piston Cup Final since the tournament began back in 1949. When the season had begun she hadn't been on anyone's radar, she was simply an unknown who many including her other competitors and the press, had assumed would burn out quickly and remain at the bottom of the standings. But then came her first race, which also happened to be her first win and then suddenly people started to take an interest in her. For the next several months Lyra continued to make her presence know, always coming in the top 5 of any of the races that she was in and racking up the points. And now here she was, with the Piston Cup just in reach; all she needed to do now was win one final race and it would be hers. The dream that she had held since childhood and never faltered from was about to finally come true.

"I am speed. I was born for speed." Lyra told her reflection residing in the small mirror attached to one of the walls in her trailer, her home away from home. Because of the vast distances that had to be travelled between races as well as the sponsor events that she attended the trailer had to be large enough to haul around her race car, Lightning, and not much else. It wasn't a large trailer in fact most people would call it cramped but Lyra didn't think of it that way, instead she found it cosy filled with all the comforts of home that she would need while on the road. True many of her competitors had nicer and spacious trailers that came with more desirable benefits like sound systems, flat screen TVs and functioning toilets but Lyra was happy with what she had. What need did she have for a TV when she was able to travel with her trusty car that she had owned since she was 19 and worked on meticulously since, plus her trailer had WIFI so she doubted she would watch a TV even if there was one in her trailer.

"One race. One winner. Forty two losers and I will not be one of them." Lyra continued her pep talk as she stepped away from her mirror and made her way over to a single coat hook which held her racing jacket. The jacket had been a gift from her sponsors, the Rust-Eze brothers or as Lyra liked to think of them, the best sponsors that a girl could wish for. The jacket was made out of leather and coloured in the exact same shade of red as Lightning's paint job. The jacket also housed a few patches with her number, lucky 95 covering her left breast, right shoulder and also the top half of the back of the jacket, with the bottom half being taken up by her sponsor's logo.

Rusty and Dusty Rust-Eze were some of the greatest people that Lyra had ever met and every day she was thankful that they had chosen her to be their spokesperson. Without them Lyra never would have been given her big break and even though their company wasn't as big as some of the others that sponsored racers such as Hostile Takeover Bank or Dinoco they still went above and beyond for her. They were like a pair of cool uncles that you only saw during the holidays that would bring you the coolest presents that your parents would never buy you no matter how much you begged or pleaded.

"Lightning you ready to go?" Mack asked, the sudden appearance of his voice breaking the silence inside the trailer. Mack was Lyra's driver, in charge of making sure that both she and Lightning made it to each and every one of their scheduled races on time and in one piece. On the long trips to and from the different race tracks Lyra and Mack were often alone, with only the occasional call from either Mack's family (his wife and son), Harv (Lyra's agent) or Rusty and Dusty being the only other interaction that the two of them would have. Because of this the two had stuck up a unique friendship that had only blossomed as more time went on between them only having each other for company. In the beginning it had been quite awkward, with Lyra and Mack hardly speaking a word to each other throughout entire trips. But then one day Mack had caught Lyra humming one of his favourite songs to drive to and their friendship was born, ever since that day whenever they travelled together the two would keep each other company, talking and singing along to playlists that they had made throughout most of their drives.

"You know it Mack." Lyra called out as she looked into the mirror one last time, giving herself a quick once over before turning once again towards the trailer's ramp. As she began to make her way to the entrance Lyra picked up her helmet which shared the same colouring as Lightning and her jacket and tucked it underneath her arm. As the shutters began to open and the light from the stadium began to pierce its way through Lyra took a moment to give herself one final piece of encouragement before the biggest race of her life began.

"Faster than fast. Quicker than quick. I am lightning."

As Lyra began to make her slow descent down the dimly lit trailer's ramp she found herself being blinded momentarily by the combined brightness of the stadium's lights and the countless cameras all flashing at once to take a photo of her appearance; the paparazzi had camped outside of her trailer once again. Now Lyra hadn't entered into the business ignorant, racing was considered to be one of the most popular and successful sports in the world, and anyone who managed to make their way to the top and make a name for themselves in the racing world was constantly hounded by the press; she just wished that they wouldn't hide in the bushes outside of her apartment building whenever she was home.

Just like with her rivals Lyra had been ignored by the press when she had first stepped onto the scene. Even when she won the very first race of the season hardly anyone took notice of her, with her name simply been quickly dropped in newspapers and articles and constant comments of how it was simply a fluke and that she would never do it again repeated everywhere. But Lyra soon showed them all how wrong they were, winning races and racking up so many points that they could no longer ignore her, especially now seeing as she had been dubbed the 'Rookie Sensation'.

"LIGHTNING! LIGHTNING! LIGHTNING!" The stadium cheered when Lyra finally came into view, her face plastered on the large TV screen housed in the centre of the track before also being cast on every other screen in the stadium, everyone was watching her. They could see her small stature, standing at just 5'4 Lyra was one of the shortest racers of the season, with only two others, both female being shorter than her. They could see the way her short multicoloured layered hairdo blew gently in the wind. Now normally Lyra's hair was dyed one colour, a deep garnet that was just a few shades lighter than Lightning's paint job. However, because of all the extra hours she had been putting into hitting the practice track in preparation for the final race Lyra hadn't had any time spare to re-dye her hair, meaning that her walnut roots had begun to show. She had considered going for a brighter red to match Lightning perfectly but after thinking about it with her suit and helmet already matching the paint job she decided against it, there was no such thing as too much red in Lyra's eyes however sometimes a different shade of it was needed. And finally the crowd could see her eyes, a deep green filled to the brim with determination and hope. It had been a long road full of obstacles to get to the Piston Cup and now that Lyra was here she was going to give the race everything she had; all her work and everything that she had sacrificed would be worth it as long as she got to stand on that podium at the end.

When her feet finally left the metal ramp of her trailer and reached the tarmac Lyra knew that it was time to stop standing still and do something that would get the crowd, especially her fans excited. Lyra had a catchphrase that she had come up with when she was a child that she had never forgotten, and even though it was slightly silly and made absolutely no sense Lyra still stuck with it till this day. It worked better when she was inside Lightning though, for she had installed a small lightning bolt shaped light over his left front wheel that she would turn on just by pushing a button on her dashboard. Whenever she was being recorded inside of Lightning be it for an interview or advert she would simply flip the switch and make it shine in time to when she spoke. However, just like now she was not always with Lightning, and so instead of shining a light she would throw up a peace sign, you couldn't make the shape of a lightning bolt with your hands after all and Lyra would know she had been trying for years.

"Ka-Chow."

* * *

It seemed as though an eternity had passed before Lyra and the rest of the racers were summoned onto the track, with most of them actually having time to do a pre-race interview beforehand. Unlike her competitors however Lyra had decided to skip out on the press and instead spent her time sitting in the pits with her crew going over Lightning one final time to make sure that he was in tip-top shape for the race. However that ended up taking only 10 minutes of the 30 minute 'eternity', so Lyra was left on her own with nothing to do but pace and stew as she waited for the call to come in.

 _'Why worry, worrying's not like me.'_ Lyra thought to herself as she gripped Lightning's steering tighter to try and calm down her nerves. She had made it, she was a competitor of the Piston Cup Final and she couldn't let her fears get the best of her right before the race started. She needed to stay in the right state of mind or else her driving would pay the price and so would she. The title, the place in the history books and the glory relied on her winning this final race and she was not about to let the tight pain in her stomach or the feelings of dread and failure she was experiencing get the better of her.

Lyra's thoughts were interrupted however when a loud siren suddenly sounded out, echoing around the entire stadium as a warning to both the spectators and the drivers that the race would begin in one minutes time and to get ready. At the same time a countdown began to play on the jumbo TV screen, with every second the excitement inside the stadium and that of the spectators at home began to raise. As the seconds began to trickle by the fear and worry that had built inside of Lyra faded away until it was mostly an inconvenience rather than a discomfort, although Lyra was fairly sure that the feeling would be gone completely after she had something else to focus on; such as trying to make it to first place.

"10! 9! 8!" The crowd shouted as the countdown neared completion and the first light appeared above the track to signal to the racers.

 _Ready!_

 _Set!_

 _GO!_

* * *

"Welcome back to the Dinoco 400. I'm Bob Cutlass here with my good friend Darrell Cartrip. And we're currently midway through what may be a historic day for racing folks." Bob addressed the audience from his seat as he unbuttoned his grey suit jacket, the heat from the lights and machinery finally getting to him after nearly three hours on the air. Bob Cutlass was a renowned sports announcer, often considered to be one of the best in the business. With an excellent resume under his belt that ranged from commentating on monster truck rallies to three Olympic games Bob certainly had a mixed and well-experienced background. However, commentating on each race of the Piston Cup was by far his most famous role, from the beginning of the season to the final race Bob would be reporting on the Racing Sports Network; alongside one of his best friends Darrell Cartrip.

"Bob my blood pressures through the roof right now, if this gets any more exciting they're going to have to tow me out of the booth." Darrell told him as he shifted slightly in his seat. Darrell Cartrip was the definition of a southern gentleman, minus the fancy suit and cane. As a previous Piston Cup champion Darrell was the perfect co-host for anyone to have for the season; in fact he had been the co-host of the show for several seasons. Darrell was Bob's parallel in every way. While Bob was well dressed in an expensive three-piece suit Darrell dressed down in a blue Hawaiian shirt covered in flames that would hardly put a dent in most people's savings. Unlike Bob's sophisticated well-mannered play-by-plays Darrell was the humorous type, adding in jokes and personality to his commentary. Also, Darrell had years of experience behind the wheel actually racing unlike Bob, who had never driven a race care in his life.

"Right you are Darrell. Three racers are currently tied for the season points lead as we head into the final race. And the winner of this race Darrell will win the championship title and the prestigious Piston Cup." Bob told the audience as the image on the screen behind them began to project live footage of the race, specifically footage of the current top 3 racers as they made their way around the track. "Does 'The King', Strip Weathers, have one more victory in him before retirement?"

"He's been Dinoco's golden boy for years! Can he win them one last Piston Cup?" Darrell replied as the screen changed once again to a zoomed in image of 'The King' live from the track while several smaller videos of stock footage played down the side. Strip Weathers was the sweetheart of the racing world, a devoted husband and father who never let his career affect his home life; there was no other driver in any league kinder then 'The King' and everybody knew it. Strip however was no longer a young man and had finally reached the point in his life where he wanted to slow down a little and spend more time with his family. With a career lasting almost 15 years and the title of most wins ever in all of Piston Cup history with 7 championships under his belt the odds of winning one last time before he began his retirement were looking good.

"And, as always, in the second-place spot we find Chick Hicks. He's been chasing 'The King's' tail fin his entire career." Just like before the scene changed to a close up of Chick Hicks, a professional runner-up. Chick had started racing the same year as Strip and ever since then had been in his shadow, even in the first few years when Strip never made it to the Piston Cup Final; Chick had always ended up coming in a lower position. The biggest difference between the two rivals however were their personalities. Unlike Strip who was a gentleman in every way Chick was a brash, rude, arrogant and self-centred man who cared about only two things, winning and landing the Dinoco sponsorship.

"Chick thought this was his year, Bob. His chance to finally emerge from 'The King's shadow. But the last thing he expected was Lightning McQueen!" Suddenly the images of Chick Hicks were replaced by a lightning bolt striking the middle of the screen with the name Lightning McQueen written in the middle. Ever since Lyra had let it slip during a press conference that she had named her car after an old nickname of hers the media had decided that that would be the name they would call her by, probably because Lightning McQueen sounded so much cooler than plain old Lyra. In fact, the name had so much impact that all her official merchandise used Lightning instead of her own name.

"You know, I don't think anybody expected this. The rookie sensation came into the season unknown. But everyone knows her now." The images changed one final time just like it had done with her rivals, showing a zoomed-in video of Lyra's current position on the track; 3rd place right behind Chick Hicks. Unlike her rivals however Lyra had never been in a Piston Cup Final so the studio had been unable to play any previous footage alongside the live image of her car, instead the video's playing down the side were either 360 shots of her sitting on top of Lightning that were used for her profile on the Piston Cup website or footage from one of her commercials for Rust-Eze.

"Will she be the first rookie to win a Piston Cup and perhaps land Dinoco?" Darrel asked, voicing everyone's burning question over this year's championship. 'The King' and Chick had years of experience on their side, unlike Lyra who was still in her first year of professional racing. But Lyra had her headstrong nature and aggressive attitude to racing that had resulted in her landing a position in the final in the first place on her side and she had no plans to change her attitude anytime soon.

"The legend, the runner-up, and the rookie! Three racers, one champion!"

* * *

Back down on the track things had begun to heat up between the contestants as they neared the 200th lap mark. Lyra had been steadily climbing up the leaderboard since the race had started, passing by her competition almost effortlessly as she made her way from her starting position of 12th place to 3rd. In front of her 'The King' still held the coveted lead, however right on his tail was none other than Chick Hicks, a recurring image in 'The King's' rearview mirror throughout his entire career. Passing 'The King' would be one of the hardest things that Lyra had done in her limited career she was sure of it; the man didn't have 7 Piston Cup wins to his name for nothing after all.

Passing by Chick Hicks on the other hand wouldn't be as challenging as going against 'The King', true he had never actually come first to 'The King' but he was still more of a threat then people gave him credit for; after he was good enough to be a runner-up in most of his races and you didn't continuously do that for nearly 15 years unless you were good.

As the three of them came off a turn Lyra began to notice that everything was coming into place for her to finally make her move and go up a position. Strip had driven to the outside of the track followed immediately by Chick who was trying to use the opening as an opportunity to speed past Strip so that he could gain first place. However whenever Chick attempted to move and use the opening 'The King' would drift to his left slightly, blocking Chick's attempts to pass him. The pair continued this little dance as they moved further into the inside of the track as another turn came into reach, unknowingly giving Lyra everything she needed to finally put her plan into action to claim first place for herself.

Because Chick was so distracted trying to finally pass 'The King' and appear 1st on the leaderboard for the first time in his life he hadn't noticed Lyra begin to make her move behind him. As Chick and Strip entered into the turn the pair drove in sync, moving into the inside of the track and leaving plenty of space between them, creating an opening to both of their right sides with more than enough room for someone to drive past; in this case that person being Lyra. Putting her foot down hard on the gas pedal Lyra began to accelerate until she was right beside Chick's car, a smile on her face for finally managing to pass him and also as a friendly hello towards Chick.

Chick didn't see her smile that way however, nor the small innocent wave that she had given him as she passed by; not that Chick could really see her that well through his safety mesh. Lyra had been a pain in Chick's side all season, his hate for her almost reaching almost the same level as his hatred for Strip; even though they had never raced against each other before today. The reason for his detest and unadulterated loathing for Lyra was because Chick had been expecting this season to finally be his. After years of coming 2nd and 3rd this was his last chance to beat Strip before he retired, one last opportunity to finally have 'The King' look up at him on the winning podium instead of the other way around.

But then Lyra 'Lightning' McQueen had entered the season and put all his plans at risk. She was as quick and fierce as her namesake on the track, moving up the leaderboard at an alarming rate until she was tied with both him and Strip pointwise. She should have been knocked out of the season in the beginning along with the rest of the rookies to fade into obscurity, yet here she was about to knock him down to 3rd place, but she wouldn't hold the honour of 2nd for long if Chick had any say in the matter.

As soon as Lyra drifted in front of him Chick hit the gas like he never had before to catch up, moving behind her until he was right next to Lyra's back bumper. It was then that Chick pounced, using the side of his own car to hit Lyra's back left tire, leading to Lyra losing control of Lightning altogether unable to do anything as she swerved across the track until she finally came to a stop on a patch of grass right in front of the camping site. After giving her very encouraging fans a wave and a small smile Lyra put her foot down and began to slowly make her way off the grassy patch as the rest of the competition drove past her, leaving Lyra in last place.

* * *

As another 'would be champion' began to tail him Chick decided to take a quick glance into his left side mirror, seeing within it the long line of racers speeding behind him, but most importantly he saw that Lightning McQueen had managed to re-enter the tack. Chick had hoped that he had managed to knock her out of the competition altogether when he had caused her to lose control of her car, thinking that she would have ended up crashing into the barrier or that her car had flipped over but that sadly appeared to not be the case. Instead Lightning was now in last place however Chick knew that she wouldn't be there for long, the girl clearly had skills to climb her way back up the leader board or else she wouldn't have made it to the finals in the first place. The bigger question was could she managed to once again become a danger for Chick's chance at the cup.

After taking another quick glance into his mirror and seeing Lightning re-join the end of the long line of cars behind him Chick had his answer, he couldn't take the risk of her working her way up back to 3rd, not when they still had over 200 laps to go.

"Dinoco is all mine." Chick told himself as he sharply steered his 1979 Shyster Cremlin into the racer next to him, number 64 Winford Bardford Rutherford or as he was more commonly called by his fellow racers 'The Professor'. Just like what had happened before with Lighting Winford's car was sent flying out of control, only instead of having a patch of grass waiting for him like Lyra had, Winford was sent crashing into the outside barrier, sending a domino effect down the line of racers. Number 92 Murray Clutchburn ended up crashing headfirst into the side of Winford's car, the resulting force of the collision sending Murray flying backwards into a multitude of the other competitors; who all in turn were either sent backwards like Murray or sent flying down to the inside of the track.

"Get through that McQueen." Chick chucked before accelerating forward after 'The King'. Because of the limited space between each of the racers there was no time for anyone to break before they found themselves crashing into the vehicle in front of them, resulting in a disastrous storm of cars and smoke to form on the track that only grew. As more cars entered into the smoke it became much harder to manoeuvre around those who had already crashed, some who entered the smoke immediately collided with another diver while others managed to make it through some of the blockade only to have a car suddenly veer towards them and smash into their side.

"Trouble on turn three!"

* * *

 _'Just breathe.'_ Lyra told herself as she accelerated into the storm of smoke, like a warrior charging into battle. As the accident took on more casualties Lyra had to make one of the hardest decisions of her life, run away and live to try again for the Piston Cup next year or attempt to make her way through what could only be described as an angry sea of smoke and cars with hardly any visibility. She could have simply turned around or shifted into reverse like many of the other racers had but Lyra knew if she took that route then the race was over for her, she'd never make her way back to the top of the leaderboard if she ran away. But if she managed to make her way through the crash in one piece then Lyra would move back to her previous position of 3rd as if she had never been knocked down in the first place, getting there however would be the ultimate challenge. Every turn and use of her pedals had to be exactly right or that was it game over and she would have to wait until next year, and that was only if she made it out of the crash unharmed.

There wasn't a moment's rest in the storm, every second was spent observing the track for new obstacles that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was total mayhem with some unbelievable sights that Lyra would have never believed if she hadn't seen them with her own eyes. While most of the cars were constantly crashing into each other or whatever came in their way, there were some in questionable positions that had Lyra wondering how they had ended up that way in the first place. The most mind-boggling was the two cars that were stacked on top of each other, number 123 'Todd Marcus' and number 52 'Claude Scruggs'; with number 52 on top of 123 upside down. It was a miracle in itself that Clause hadn't been flung off the top of Todd's roof as the two speed away further into the smoke ahead of her.

As Lyra reached the eye of the storm after dodging multiple other racers everything changed, and not for the better. There right in the middle of the track were Todd and Claude though this time they were stationary and no longer a balancing duo. She didn't know what had happened that finally allowed Claude to dislodge from Todd's roof, but Lyra hoped that it hadn't put either of the racers in danger. As she looked past them however Lyra began to feel a wave of dread pool in her stomach as she saw her worst nightmare come to life, there was no way around them. Any visibility that she had on what lie past the pair was limited, but one thing was clear by the blurred looking paint jobs that she could just manage to make out, the road ahead was laid with so many crashed vehicles that she wouldn't be able to manoeuvre around them.

As Lyra got closer an idea struck her that was so stupid that she nearly bashed her head on her steering wheel to punish herself for even coming up with it. Todd and Claude's cars appeared to look similar to a ramp and seeing as there was no way around them, she should use their situation to her advantage and go over both them and the cars ahead of her. It was such a stupid plan that it couldn't possibly work, but she was out of ideas. If she speed around the pair she would crash immediately in the sea of cars that awaited beyond the smoke, but if she remained where she was that she would most likely end up being smashed into by one of the many cars still out of control. She didn't have a choice, she had to give her stupid most likely impossible plan a chance.

As she accelerated forward Lyra said a small prayer for herself and for Todd and Claude, praying that she would make it out of this stupid plan alive and in one piece and that she didn't harm either of the drivers as she used them as a ramp. It was as if time itself had slowed down just for that moment as Lightning was launched off the undercarriage of number 52 and sent flying into the air, much higher that Lyra had anticipated. As Lightning continued to ascend higher Lyra took a quick peek at the crashed cars below, she had been right there wasn't enough room between any of the cars for her to manoeuvre around if she hadn't taken this chance she was have crashed the second she passed Todd and Claude.

Suddenly as Lyra flew out of the cloud of smoke she was met by a bombardment of camera flashes, all taking pictures of her stupid plan. If she wasn't currently living the moment Lyra would have never believed that she had managed to fling herself and Lightning so far, just like many other wouldn't tomorrow when they saw the clip on the news and YouTube. But all things must come to an end and as Lightning began to descend back down to the track time began to start up again. And in the blink of an eye, Lyra was back on the ground and heading toward the starting line once again.

* * *

"Look at that McQueen made it through!" Darrel shouted, a slight bounce in his step as he watched the young racer land safely back on the tarmac, her sudden reappearance surprising everyone in the stadium. No one had been able to make out anything that was happening inside of the smoke cloud, or at least they hadn't until McQueen had appeared once again, unharmed and literally flying above the crash much to the surprise of everyone watching, It was unbelievable, in fact in all the years that he had under his belt both on the track racing and off the track commentating Darrel couldn't remember a more memorable moment. Lyra McQueen was certainly something else there was no denying that, not after they had all seen her perform the impossible; he would have to interview her later on and ask her how she managed to pull off such a stunt.

"A spectacular move by Lightning McQueen." Bob spoke with enthusiasm as he turned away from the large window to face the direction of the cameras, unable to hide his emotions. Just like Darrel Bob had been thoroughly impressed by McQueen's display on the track and could hardly control himself when she came back into view nearly 15 feet in the air with no one having any idea how she got up there. The crowd had gone just as wild as both him and Darrel, chanting her name from the moment she reappeared and not stopping until she had long passed the starting line.

"While everyone else heads into the pits McQueen stays out to take the lead." Bob told the viewers, watching what was happening back down on the track on one of the many screens that were set up behind the cameras. On the biggest screen which was used to house the current footage that was being broadcast both around the stadium and at home Bob could see Lyra pull up behind the yellow safety car that had come out onto the track. The rookie sensation certainly had a chance at the title now more than ever, all she had to do was remain in first place for another 200 laps and she would have her first championship title.

Back down in the pits, an air of sadness loomed as a number of racers were carted off either too injured to continue racing or no longer having a car that they could safely drive. The crash that Chick had caused had taken out 11 racers from the final, 5 from their injuries and 6 from their cars being beat up. Luckily no one was in critical condition with the worst of the injuries being both a broken leg and a broken arm.

While the pit crews were rushing about changing tires and refilling engines Chick was taking things leisurely, bragging to his crew about the disaster he had created on the track and how McQueen was likely out of the race. In Chick's mind, he had created a whole scenario on how he imagined things had gone down in the crash for McQueen. He imagined her spiralling out of control and hitting another racer before being hit again and again by more cars until her precious 'Lightning' was broken and destroyed until it was unfixable. If that was really how it all went down than Chick would have given nearly anything to have seen it.

"Mcqueen made it through. She's not pitting." And just like that, with those few words from his crew chief, Chick's fantasy was broken and he was brought back into reality.

"Come on! Get me out there! Let's go! Get me back out there! Come on!"

* * *

It was rather awkward for Lyra sitting inside Lightning with only her own thoughts to keep her company for over 300 laps. She used to have a crew chief, in fact, she had had 3 since the season had started. All polite gentleman who would speak words of encouragement and advice into her ear as she raced around the track, but none of them ever lasted very long, her agent Harv made sure of that. He would come up with an excuse not long after each of her different crew chiefs had been hired, that they were lying on their resume or that they weren't doing their job as good as they should have and so he had to fire them; even though Lyra found each of them to do a wonderful job. But Harv would have none of it, 'Only the best for you,' he would tell her before going on about something else as a means to distract her, and so Lyra had been left without a crew chief at the most important race of her life.

Though it was a horrible thing to say, thanks to the crash Lyra had finally been able to move into first place and hold on to her position for nearly 200 laps as well as hold a substantial lead over the other racers. Both 'The King' and Chick had been caught up down at the pits after all the other racers had seen her stay out to take the lead, with Chick actually ending up right down at the bottom when he finally managed to leave his pit, in nearly the same position that she had held after he sent her off the track. But that had been hours ago when the race had gone into a restart. Now as they neared the final lap both Strip and Chick had moved up the leaderboard until they were in 2nd and 3rd respectively, although Lyra still had a huge lead on all the other racers.

As Lyra passed the starting line a white flag was waved above her head signalling to her and everyone in the stadium that it was the final lap. Lyra could hardly contain the excitement that she felt, wanting to jump up and down and scream in joy all at the same time. In a few seconds, her dream which she had held onto since she was a child and never faltered from would come true. Her years spent training and the sacrifices she had made along the way would all be worth it when she passed the finish line.

"Checkered flag, here I come!" Lyra told herself as she entered the final turn, the finishing line within her grasp. Suddenly everything came crashing down as one of Lightning's back tyres burst, sending him out of control. Lyra couldn't believe it, she had been driving on the same set of tyres for nearly 200 laps and this was when they decided to go, when she was about to achieve her dream; couldn't they have waited until she had passed the finish line.

When it came to racing Lyra had tunnel vision, with her only goal being to past the finish line in a relatively top position, preferably 1st. And because of this she often made stupid mistakes that she would kick herself for actually doing when the races were finished and she was away from everyone else. In this instance, not listening to any of her pit crew about changing her tyres during any of the times that she had gone into the pits. Instead, she kept telling them to just refill her gas so that none of the other racers had the chance to catch up on her incredible lead. Perhaps if she had had a crew chief she wouldn't have ended up in this position.

With less than a hundred feet to go Lyra was struggling to control Lightning, who was now down two tyres in total; his front left tyre having burst when she had finished the final turn. It was a nightmare trying to keep him straight, constantly turning her wheels so that he wouldn't continue to veer in all directions. It was even worse when his first tire had blown, sending both of them skidding across the track so fast that Lyra though he was going to topple over. But the worst thing about Lightning's tyres bursting wasn't how limited a control Lyra now had over him, but how much it had decreased his speed. Lightning was now going so slow that both 'The King' and Chick were catching up on her despite the large lead she originally had. The more she looked into her rearview mirror to check on their positions the more Lyra wanted to rip it off as she saw them getting closer.

As both Strip and Chick passed the final turn and accelerated towards her tears began to fall down Lyra's cheeks. She had failed, she knew she had there was no question about it. She was moving less than a mile an hour and Strip and Chick were moving at over 60. Her stupidity had caused this if she had listened to her pit crew or had even the smallest amount of common sense in her Lyra would most likely have won. To think a few moments ago she was on top of the world and now Lyra felt as if she had been dragged along the track by Lighting for 400 laps.

And in an instant, it was over. 'The King' and Chick passed alongside her as she finally reached the finish lines in what appeared to be milliseconds apart. As the crowd cheered louder than they had done all night Lyra just kept moving slowly along the track, lost in her own thoughts, not caring as she heard them call her name. Lyra just sat inside Lightning, her face soaked with her tears as she clutched onto his steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

She had lost.


	2. Everything To Win

"You're an idiot Lyra, you know that!" Charlie, the leader of Lyra's pit crew and the closest person to a crew chief that Lyra had shouted at her as the rest of the crew moved around them, preparing Lightning for the journey home. The Piston Cup had ended almost half an hour ago however, Lyra had only managed to make it back into the pits 10 minutes prior due to Lightning's lack of wheels slowing her down immensely. By the time Lyra had made it back to the pits the majority of the pit crews had already packed all their equipment away and had vacated the area, leaving only Lyra's team and very few others down there all alone. Since she had returned Lyra's crew had done nothing but scold her like a child while they worked on Lightning, making sure that everything was still running smoothly and replacing his tyres; luckily her stupid risky move hadn't completely destroyed him.

"I know Charlie, I just-" Lyra began as she spoke in a whisper, however, she was unable to continue her sentence from the tightness growing in her throat. Lyra knew that she deserved every word that they threw at her for what she had done on the track but all Lyra wanted to do at that moment was curl up into a ball on her bed and let out the flood of tears that she was fighting back. But Lyra wouldn't allow a single tear to fall until she was back in the privacy of her own trailer, she couldn't let anyone see her in such a state; especially the paparazzi. And so, to stop herself from crying Lyra tried everything she could to keep the tears at bay: biting her cheek, clutching the tyre she was sitting on top off, thinking back to another happier time before the race. Lyra just hoped that she didn't have to wait much longer so that she could be alone, fearing that she would bite off a chunk of her inner cheek if not.

"Don't worry about it, there's always next year." Charlie told her in a much calmer and kinder voice than he had spoken in previously as he sat down beside Lyra, almost falling into the middle of the tyre heap, bringing with it the first smile to appear on Lyra's face since the race had ended. Charlie was right of course, Rusty and Dusty loved her like a daughter, they wouldn't just throw her to the wolves because she hadn't managed to come in first place like she had promised them. And while Lyra might not have won the Piston Cup she did manage to make it to the final, something that no one had expected her to do; and if she could do it once then she would do it again next year.

"Come on Lyra we gotta go." Mack's voice rang out as the trucker suddenly appeared out of nowhere, causing both Lyra and Charlie to jump up out of shock, knocking over the pile of tyres that they had been sitting on as they went. As Charlie went about picking up the fallen tyres Lyra stared at Mack in complete confusion, having no idea what he was talking about. Mack had been down in the pits enough times in the past few months to know when Lightning was finished and ready to go and at that moment he clearly wasn't, with Robb another member of her pit crew currently checking underneath Lightning's bonnet. Mack's rush to leave didn't make any sense, at least until he uttered the words that Lyra had longed to hear for years but had been denied the second Lighting's tyre had burst on the track. "They're all waiting for you at Victory Lane."

"Mack, I lost." Lyra told him as she picked up her racing jacket that she had carelessly thrown on top of a toolbox the second that she had gotten out of Lightning. As she zipped up her jacket Lyra considered running passed her crew until she was safely hidden away in her trailer, planning to remain there for the rest of her days so that she could hide from her embarrassing loss and never have to make an appearance in front of the paparazzi or the world ever again. However just as Lyra was about to make a run for it and start her plan Mack spoke again.

"Lyra it was too close to call, they've spent the last half an hour reviewing the footage." And just like that with a few simple words time froze once again like it had before when Lyra had been flying high above the track, only this time instead of being in the air above a dozen crashed cars Lyra was standing in the pits surrounded by her crew. Everything and everyone stood still as Lyra slowly made her way over to one of the tyre shelves and took a hold of the metal tightly, her legs now feeling too much like jelly to keep herself standing without support. As Lyra stood there still in shock and her ears ringing she was just able to make out the muffled chants of 'You did it Lyra' and 'Congratulations' from her pit crew standing behind her.

"I might have won!" Lyra suddenly screamed as she pushed herself away from the tyre shelve, the feelings of doubt and nervousness that she had previously felt now having disappeared as fast as Lightning could drive. Lyra couldn't believe it, she had thought that Strip, Chick and the rest of the racers had passed her before she had managed to make it to the finish line, but now she was finding out that she had a second chance at the championship, it was a dream come true. In seconds she had moved up from last place to a chance at 1st and she wasn't about to stand there any longer when she could be finding out the answer, she had to get to Victory Road.

"Hey, drinks are on me if I do guys!"

* * *

"McQueen over here." The paparazzi shouted from all around Lyra as she finally entered Victory Lane, the second she had come into view cameras had flashed from every angle trying to get the first picture of her appearance, however Lyra had paid them no mind at all as she began to walk forward towards the stage; where her destiny was awaiting her. She did give them a small wave and the occasional peace sign, of course, she had to be polite and cooperative or who knows what they would call her in all the newspapers and magazines in the morning. If Mack had found her earlier Lyra would have been more than happy to stand in front of the army of cameras and put on a 'show' like she normally did, answering their questions and looking pretty just like they expected her to.

Lyra was far beyond just a pretty face however, anyone who spent more than 5 minutes with her or didn't have a camera in front of her could testify to that, she was far smarter than anyone would give her credit for with a number of skills under her belt asides from being able to drive a car spectacularly well. But the press didn't care about her intelligent nor her surprisingly good baking skills, they cared about the way she looked, only ever asking her questions such as who she was wearing and what makeup she wore whenever she was interviewed, they hardly even questioned her about racing and when they did they dumbed down the questions; as if she knew nothing about the sport that she had dedicated her life to. But the press only saw Lyra as a pretty face to sell copies of magazines and increase the views of their shows, the real Lyra McQueen didn't matter at all to them.

As Lyra drew closer to the stage her path was suddenly blocked by a pair of twin girls jumping out in front of her, halting her progress and causing her to pause in confusion. For a second Lyra thought that she was staring into two mirrors, the twins looking almost identical to her in every way, it was incredible the lengths these two fans of hers had gone. They weren't complete mirror images of Lyra of course, for one both girls were slightly shorter than her which was saying something when you took into account how small Lyra actually was. Another difference between the star and her fans was that the twins hadn't been able to dye their hair the same shade that their idol had used, instead, their heads were a much brighter shade than the garnet that Lyra wore, however, they did manage to style both their hairdos to match her own. The two also wore matching red outfits that looked exactly like something Lyra would wear while going out as well as several pieces of Lyra's official merchandise, including their shoes and jackets.

"I'm Mia/Tia. We're like your biggest fans! Ka-chow!" The twin girls shouted in unison at Lyra as they quickly unzipped their jackets, revealing their white t-shirts underneath which had her name bedazzled on them in gold studs, the girl on the left had Lyra on hers while the girl to the right had McQueen bedazzled on her own t-shirt, what dedication; Lyra couldn't help but smile at her fans for what they had done. However, this display of affection didn't last very long as the security guards had finally managed to figure out that the two girls weren't supposed to be there at all, having most likely jumped over the barrier so they could meet their idol. As the girls were lead away they screamed once more about how much they loved Lyra before finally disappearing into the crowd of press.

With the twins finally gone Lyra began making her way towards the stage once again, with each step she took the excitement building inside of her grew. This was it, in a matter of minutes she would find out if she had come in first place or if she had become a runner-up, as soon as that announcement was made Lyra would know if her dreams had become a reality or if it had just slipped through her fingers. Whatever the outcome Lyra would be happy with the result, true she wanted the Piston Cup more than anything in the world but not 10 minutes ago she had reached rock bottom, believing that she had come in last place at the race of her life. But now Lyra was on top of the world, she was one of the top three contestants and while she would prefer to come in first place Lyra was just happy that her stupid mistake on the track hadn't caused her to lose and that she had a second chance at the title.

However, as Lyra drew closer to the stage an arm suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere, linking with her own before the person began to walk forward, taking Lyra along with them. Just as Lyra was to shout her head off at the action, however, a familiar voice rang out that calmed her down immediately, a voice that Lyra had spent years listening to on TV and the radio, the voice behind a man she had idolised since she 10 years old; Strip 'The King' Weathers.

"Girl you're one gutsy racer."

"Mr The King!" Lyra nearly shouted in excitement as she turned her head away from the cameras to stare at the face of the racing legend. Even though the pair had raced against each other on more than one occasion since the season had begun the two had never actually met before today. They had been in close proximity on multiple occasions both on and off the track for almost a year, yet the pair had never said a word to each other, the two racers even ran in the same social circle, often attending the same parties along with the other racers of the season and no one had thought to introduced them. Instead whenever they were about to make each other's acquaintance something always came up, such as a pesky agent always sending Lyra in the opposite direction before she could say hello.

"You got more talent in your little finger than a lot of racers have in their whole body." Strip told her as they made their way over to the ramp at the back of the stage, finally out of the view of the paparazzi. Lyra had been a huge fan of 'The King' for years, in fact, she could remember watching his very first race on TV when she 10 years old, thinking all the way back then that he was an amazing racer and that he would one day win the Piston Cup. 'The King' also held the 1st place position of Lyra's favourite modern day racer and was one of her all-time favourites as well, though the position of first in that category belonged to another. Whatever happened next, Lyra would consider it an honour to stand on the podium alongside Strip 'The King' Weathers at his last ever race.

"But you're stupid. The Piston Cup isn't worth your life girl." Strip continued without pause, his eyes hard and his voice serious in a way that Lyra had never seen him before. In all the years that she had watched and re-watched his interviews Strip had never sounded as cold as he did in this moment, and Lyra had watched nearly every interview that 'The King' had ever recorded. This wasn't how Lyra imagined her first meeting with the 'The King' going, true she had been flattered by his compliment about her talent, but she didn't think he would comment about how reckless she had been that day so bluntly, it was making the feelings of dread begin to seep into her stomach once more. "You need to wise up and get yourself a good crew chief and a good team. And you ain't gonna win unless you got good folks behind you stopping you from doing those stupid stunts you pulled back there."

"But if she never pulled those 'stupid stunts' as you call them she wouldn't be here." Chick's voice suddenly rang out as he walked over to the pair from the corner he had been lurking in, his abrupt appearance making the two racers wonder how neither of them had seen him before whilst they had been talking. "She'd be in her trailer crying her eyes out, running home back to her mommy like the scared little gi-"

"Well I'm not am I." Lyra hissed, interrupting Chick before he could say any more. Lyra had been called 'little girl' more times that she could count ever since the season had begun and she was not about to let herself be called it again, especially not to her face by none other than Chick Hicks. Just because Lyra was missing something between her legs everyone thought that they could treat her differently compared to her male counterparts. Calling her a girl was fine, it was her gender after all though she would prefer to be called a woman, and as long as they were calling her little when referring to her height it didn't matter. But calling her 'little girl' as an insult, it was as if they were saying she was a child doing an adults job and she was definitely not a child, she had just turned 25 last month. "I'm here with as much a chance at the championship as you and you can't do anything about it."

"Ladies and gentlemen…" And just like that with a few words from the speaker the tension that had been brewing behind the curtain began to dwindle as the three possible champions all turned on their heels to face the stage, all of them holding their breaths as they waited to hear the result that might change their lives. "For the first time in Piston Cup history...

* * *

 _'Piston Cup officials have determined that a tiebreaker race between the three leaders will be held in California in one week.'_ The words kept repeating inside of Lyra's head as she continued to make her way towards the truck parking area, a spring in her step as she went from how happy she was feeling. She had been given another chance at the championship that wouldn't rely on a bunch of officials huddling around a screen re-watching a video to decided just who came in what position like what had nearly happened tonight. Instead Lyra, Strip and Chick would race once more in a weeks' time, with the winner of their tiebreaker match going on to claim the Piston Cup. When the words had been spoken and the curtain to the press had opened Lyra had ended up tripping up on her own feet from her shock at the words. If it wasn't for 'The King' grabbing onto her waist to stop Lyra from plummeting head first she would have wound up in the sea of paparazzi, no doubt the papers would be filled to the brim with ridiculous pun-filled headlines in the morning involving the whole affair; at least Strip had caught her before she had embarrassed herself too much.

"Hey Lyra! Congrats on the tie." Mack's voice rang out from a corner, bringing Lyra back into reality. Lyra was so grateful that Mack was here waiting for her and that she didn't have to go searching for him, she couldn't wait to hit the open road and beat Chick to California and to do that she needed her trusted trucker by her side. After the press conference had finished Chick had decided to confront Lyra when they were finally far away from prying eyes, telling her that she had done a good job for a rookie and that her good luck had run out. He had also bragged about whoever reached California first would have Dinoco all to themselves and that he would beat her there, well too bad for Chick because Lyra had the best truck driver in the business, she'd get there days before he would with Mack towing her and Lightning along.

Lyra didn't care at all about the partnership with Dinoco that was rumoured to be offered to the winner of the Piston Cup. When Lyra was a kid she had dreamed about becoming their spokesperson and all the fame and fortune that came with signing onto the brand, the movie deals, the recognition, a house overlooking the Hollywood sign; if Lyra signed on with Dinoco then all those fantasies would come true. But that was then when she didn't have Rusty and Dusty cheering her on and giving her a chance to show the world what she was made of. If things had been different then maybe Lyra would have done everything in her power to win over Dinoco's favour and bag the sponsorship for herself, but she had the Rust-eze brothers now and she wouldn't give them up for anything in the world.

"Thanks Mack. We all sadd - where's the trailer?" Lyra questioned as she finally noticed that her haulier wasn't in its designated spot, it was never a good sign when her trailer went missing; it could only mean one thing, she had to make an appearance to her fans.

"Parked at the sponsor's tent. Got to make your personal appearance." Mack told Lyra as he pointed over to a corner where a semi-large tent sat, the Rust-eze logo printed as clear as day on the side for all to see. Most of the time Lyra didn't mind making appearances, she was happy to stand around for hours after races signing autographs and posing for pictures with her fans until each of them had done something with her, not wanting to leave anyone who had come to see her race out. However, after races, her fans were typically kept behind a small barrier with a security guard nearby to make sure that everyone was behaving and Lyra highly doubted that was the set up inside of the tent, meaning she was at the mercy of her fans, her typically male fans.

* * *

"Lyra McQueen here and I use Rust-eze Bumper Treatment, new rear end formula! Nothing fixes a rusty bumper like Rust-eze." Lyra's voice echoed around the inside of the tent, though it wasn't coming out of her mouth instead Lyra's voice was coming from an old TV screen that had been set up near the stage, using what looked like a VCR to play the footage. The video currently being shown was the first commercial that Lyra had ever recorded for the company back when she had signed on all those months ago. Lyra remembered being incredibly nervous during the first take, stuttered out every single word and even getting some of the lines wrong. But she had come a long way since then, getting better at her acting until she no longer stuttered and had everything filmed within the first 5 takes and all it took was some practice to help her improve. "Wow! Look at that shine! Use Rust-eze and you too can look like Lightning! Ka-chow!"

"I saw this car from Swampscott. It was so rusty it didn't even cast a shadow." Rusty told the crowd from his seat atop the small stage at the end of the tent, his joke causing the audience and his brother sitting next to him to laugh. The tent was full to capacity with everyone seated on cheap foldable chairs as they watched the two brothers interact and work off each other, the entire audience completely oblivious to the actions of their idol just behind them. Lyra was currently hiding behind a cardboard cut-out of herself at the entrance of the tent sizing up the room, quickly finding that not a single member of the audience appeared to be under the age of 40 or female, which had Lyra dreading walking in even more than she had before. Lyra loved all her fans of course however she always found that her older male fans could be very handsy if there wasn't any security present, like in this case.

As Dusty and Rusty continued on, beginning to talk about how winter would soon be upon them Lyra began to consider the possibility of sneaking in. There were plenty of cut-outs around the tent that she would be able to use to hide behind, including some that featured both her and Lightning, meaning there was plenty of coverage to keep her hidden, if she could just get her hands on one Lyra might just be able to sneak by everyone and make her way over to Lightning. Then again after taking a minute to pause and reflect on the idea it became very clear to Lyra just how obvious it would be that she was hiding behind one of the cut-outs if it suddenly started to move, plus she had to make it all the way up onto the stage to get to her trailer; her plan was just crumbling into pieces the more she thought about it.

Luckily for Lyra Mack had been nice enough to go ahead and wait inside of his truck so that they could be off and on their way to California whenever she gave the signal, all Lyra had to do now was complete her appearance; maybe shake a few hands and say a few words before they were free to hit the open road. It also helped that Mack and the team had already loaded Lightning inside of the trailer, so that he was facing in the direction of the audience, meaning that they wouldn't have to waste time carting him inside after they left the tent. Realising that she couldn't leave Mack waiting too long if she wanted to get to California way before Chick Lyra decided that it was time to come out of hiding, stepping out from behind the cut-out and giving Rusty and Dusty a small wave so that they could spot her, it was time to get this over and done with.

"Hey look! There she is! Our almost champ!" Dusty shouted from the stage, alerting the audience who quickly began to crowd her to her presence. As Lyra began to make her way through the tent everything that she had been dreading began to happen. The closer Lyra drew to the stage the closer the audience got, complimenting her on her win as she passed, variations of "Lightning McQueen, you are wicked fast!" and "You were booking McQueen!" coming from every direction. Now the remarks weren't what bothered Lyra, in fact, she rather enjoyed them though she did wish they weren't shouting their comments right in her ear. It was, in fact, the wandering hands of the audience that Lyra hated having to face whenever she was in a crowd, especially in a crowd of nothing but men like she was in now.

Every time Lyra was in a crowd with just her male fans there were always a few individuals who got to 'friendly', grabbing onto certain areas of her body that they had no right to touch. The worst thing was that Lyra could do nothing about it, the culprits were always so quick and only did it when she was surrounded by so many people that she had no idea who actually touched her in such a fashion. This was why Lyra hated doing these appearances without a barrier or security guard present, it was easy to tell who had touched her during those appearances while in crowded ones like these it became near impossible to find the culprit. The whole thing made Lyra uncomfortable beyond belief and was in her opinion the worst thing about being a celebrity.

"You're my hero Miss McQueen." A voice suddenly rang out, causing Lyra to stop dead in her tracks. Lyra had been paying close attention to the comments she was getting as a means to distract herself from the less gentlemanly fans and the comment that she had just heard was unlike any of the others. A hero, someone had just called her their hero, she felt so honoured to have played such a role in someone's life. As she turned around in the direction that the voice had come from Lyra came face to face with Fred, or at least that's what she thought his name was seeing as that's what his nametag had written on. And by the way that Fred was looking at her compared to the other fans in the crowd, Lyra knew in an instant that it was him who had called her his hero.

"It's nice to meet you Fred." Lyra told the man, offering her hand for him to take however Fred just stood there dumbfounded, completely unable to move as he continued to stare at Lyra with a look of wonder on his face. Deciding to take the initiative Lyra reached out and grabbed Fred's hand so that they were doing a handshake, waiting for a moment as their hands moved up and down hoping that Fred would return to reality and say something back to her. However, Fred never returned and after a few too many seconds passed by it began to become awkward, so Lyra let go of Fred's hands and gave him a quick 'Goodbye' before rebeginning her journey towards the stage. When Lyra had finally managed to pass him Fred seemed to come back from whatever wonderland he had entered before and began to scream to the crowd that she knew his name, the sweet gesture bringing a smile to Lyra's face as she began to make her way up the stage.

"Thanks to you Lightning we had a banner year." Rusty told Lyra as he stood up from his chair so that he could grab a hold of her shoulder. It was all thanks to Lyra that the Rust-eze brand had been able to see such a profitable financial year, with their profits growing so great compared to the years before that the brothers had been able to give every one of their workers a generous pay raise. With Lyra winning races and making commercials the Rust-eze brand quickly became a household name with products selling out almost immediately after they hit the shelves, and they had Lyra to thank for that. "We might even clear enough to buy Lightning some headlights."

"Are you saying she drives without headlights?" Dusty asked before letting out a loud laugh which had the audience quickly following suit. This was a running joke that the two brothers liked to tell whenever they got the chance not caring who they told it to, like the time they had told a film crew the joke while she was being interviewed, resulting in them having to reshoot the question she was being asked because they were all laughing so hard; at least the interview hadn't been live. Lyra didn't get why it was so funny, there was no rule in the Piston Cup handbook saying that a car had to have headlights to drive on the track, so Lyra had taken them out of Lightning not long after she had signed on with Rust-eze, when she no longer had to use him to drive to work. Before Lyra had officially become a racer Lightning had to be both her race car and regular car so that she could travel everywhere meaning that it was a legal requirement for her to have them, she had no choice but to have them back then.

"That's what I'm telling ya. They're just stickers!" Rusty responded, the laughter of the audience only growing louder at his words. They had the routine down to a tee and the joke always seemed to land no matter who their audience was, it completely baffled Lyra. With Mack driving her to all her races and appearances Lyra had no need to drive Lightning off the race track, in fact, Lyra had removed his headlights the day that Mack had signed on to be her driver. Without her headlights Lyra was able to decrease the weight of Lightning, improving his performance which was always a plus in the racing world.

"Well, you know, race cars don't need headlights, because the track is always lit." Lyra told the pair of brothers and the audience before sneaking a quick peek at Lightning who was still parked safely inside of her trailer. Now that Lightning no longer had headlights Lyra was left without a car that she could legally use when she returned home to her small apartment when there were no races for her to attend but during those rare few days, Lyra simply took the bus to navigate the city. The majority of her time was either spent racing, travelling to races or at events promoting herself and the brand, so when Lyra finally had a few days at home all she ever really did was eat and sleep, meaning that having a car wasn't really necessary anymore.

"Yeah, well, so is my brother, but his car still needs headlights." Rusty joked, saying his words so quickly that the words flew over a few of the audience's heads, but it didn't fly past Lyra's, who let a small chuckle escape her lips that was so quiet that no one asides from Rusty and Dusty probably heard. Dusty's 'habit' was the worlds worst kept secret, with everyone who got close enough to him immediately able to tell just what he smoked, the effect clearly present in his eyes and the smell of the plant surrounding him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Lightning McQueen." The two brothers suddenly announced in unison, stepping out of the way so that they stood aside Lyra as the lights in the tent went off, replaced only by a single spotlight focused solely on Lyra, Rusty and Dusty seemed to have more of a budget this time around; first a TV and now this they must have nearly broken the bank to fund such a technically advanced show.

"You know, the Rust-eze team ran a great race today, without them I wouldn't have a second chance at the title." Lyra told the crowd before turning her head to look at both Rusty and Dusty for a moment, the two brothers watching her closely for their spot at the sidelines. Lyra remembered the day that she had met the Rust-eze brothers as if it was yesterday, though it was actually 11 months ago. There had been an event at the race track where Lyra and several of the other newcomers of the season practised, a small race that allowed companies looking for racers to come and scout for a possible spokesperson. Now not to toot her own horn but Lyra had managed to do incredibly well in the showcase race, in fact, she had come in first place well ahead of her competition. Because of this when the race was over Lyra was quickly surrounded by multiple companies looking to make her their driver, however as soon as Lyra had taken off her helmet and revealed to them that she was, in fact, a girl this interest disappeared, no one wanted to even know her name, except for Rusty and Dusty.

The brothers had warned Lyra straight off the bat that working for them wouldn't be as glamorous as it would be if she signed up with another company. While the Rus-eze company had grown drastically in the past 15 years, from the humble beginning of selling the treatment out of the brother's mother's garage to owning multiple factories all over the world, the two owners didn't cut corners like a lot of other businesses. They paid their workers a living wage, offered health insurance and made sure that all of their factories were up to code and because of all this the majority of the money that they made went straight back into the business rather than their own pocket, which was most likely the reason that the brothers were still living with their mother. But Lyra didn't care about any of that, all she wanted was to race and try to achieve her dream and Rusty and Dusty were offering to give her a chance to make that dream come true, so she signed on and gained two friends who quickly turned into family.

"Now I'd really love to stay and chat with all you lovely gentlemen, but the night is young and it's a long drive to California." Lyra told the audience before giving them a small wave and a peace sign, posing for a moment in case anyone was taking pictures. Lovely and gentlemen might not have been the best words that Lyra could have used to describe some of the members of the audience inside of the tent, but she was in public and if Lyra had learnt anything from her parents it was that politeness was key in all situations, she had to keep the peace and hold her tongue else the press would find out in a matter of minutes. "And remember guys, with a little Rust-eze your car can look just like Lightning. Ka-chow."

"We love ya Lyra. And we're looking forward to another great year. Just like this year." Dusty told Lyra before he and Rusty pulled her into a hug, the three of them simply standing there for a moment holding onto each other as the crowd all cheered her name. When they finally came apart Lyra gave both the brothers a quick kiss on the cheek to show her appreciation before running passed them until she was inside her trailer, buzzing to Mack over the speaker system as she went to alert him that she was inside and ready to hit the road.

"Bye guys, I'll call you when we get there." Lyra called out to the brother as she leaned back against Lightning's hood, watching the occupants of the tent as the ramp at the front of the trailer slowly closed as Mack began to move off and start their journey. However, just before the ramp shut completely Lyra was able to hear the voices of Rusty and Dusty once more, saying their goodbyes that she hadn't waited to hear.

"Don't drive like my brother!"

"Yeah, don't drive like my brother"

* * *

"Hey Mack, how about some tunes?" Lyra asked her driver and close friend over the speaker, her gaze focused on the laptop screen in front of her as she waited a moment for his reply. Lyra was currently sitting at her small desk in the corner of her trailer, scouring through hundreds of news and social media sites to see the reaction that the world was having to the Piston Cup final. So far, the majority of the posts that she had been able to find had been positive when it came to the decision of having a tie-breaker race in a weeks' time, especially from her official fan club forum which was buzzing with activity; everyone glad that she had been given a second chance at the cup. In the span of a few hours over 50 new discussions had been posted and Lyra had been going through each and every one of them, reading what the comments had to say. Lyra liked to keep a close relationship with her fans online, even going as far to run her own social media profiles rather than have someone else control it like her agent Harv had wanted.

"Sure, any requests?" Mack replied, his voice slightly distorted from the hum of his truck and the quality of their speaker system. The open road was a pretty lonely place to be and with only each other for company Mack and Lyra had developed a close relationship after travelling together for almost a year. The pair would often spend the long hours on the road telling stories and singing along together to either the radio or playlists that they had both made. For the majority of the long trips, the two friends would keep the channel open so that they could talk to each other without constantly having to redial the code every time they wanted to speak to one another. The only time that either of them would close the channel would be if they were taking a private phone call, Mack to his wife and son and Lyra to Rusty and Dusty.

"Awesome Road Trip Mix Number 2?" Lyra asked him as she opened up her twitter feed. Awesome Road Trip Mix Number 2 as Lyra called it was the second out of five playlists that she and Mack had created specifically for the lengthier journeys that they had to take. With over 3 hours' worth of songs that they both liked Awesome Road Trip Mix Number 2 was one of the better playlists that Lyra and Mack had created, featuring a variety of different genres ranging from country to musical theatre that the pair could both sing along to as the miles racked up.

"You got it Lyra." Mack told her as the familiar tune of 'Life is a Highway' by Rascal Flatts began to play over the speakers. As the song began Lyra tapped her foot to the beat as she looked at her twitter notifications, which had managed to reach over 5000 since the last time she had checked it just before the race had begun; a record number of notifications in Lyra's book. Most of the tweets mentioning her were friendly, congratulating her on the tie and how they couldn't wait until next week to see her race again, hoping that this time she won the match. However not all the tweets were so nice, with a mix of 'Women belong in the kitchen' and comments on how she must have been on her period to think that driving 200 laps on one set of ties was a good idea littered across the screen. Comments like this weren't uncommon for Lyra to see, however, particularly after she completed a race, but whenever she saw them Lyra simply blocked them out; her fans were what mattered to her not the comments of her haters and she wouldn't let their words get to her.

"Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long!" Lyra sang out loud as she wrote out a tweet to her fans, thanking them all for their congratulation and how happy she was to have such a dedicated fan base cheering for her. Lyra was a pretty decent singer, nothing amazing that could land her a record deal if she ever had to leave the racing business, which wouldn't happen for a long time if she had anything to say about it. But it was the type of voice that when it came to karaoke Lyra had nothing to worry about, she could hold a tune rather well and was able to sing in the right pitch rather than drastically off key like a certain driver she knew.

When Lyra had told Mack about her discussion with Chick and his unofficial bet about being the first to California, Mack had promised to drive the whole 35+ hour trip with as few stops as possible as long as she agreed to stay up with him the majority of the trip to keep him company, which Lyra had happily agreed to immediately as long as she got a few hours rest first, tired from the many hours she had spent on the track throughout the day. And so here the two were now, nearly 24 hours into their long journey and only having stopped 5 times in total for one of three things, the toilet, fuel and food.

However just as the song was about to reach its final chorus the music began to fade away as the loud sound of a phone ringing came over the speakers. Peering over to look at the tablet screen, that had been built into the table so that Lyra could control several of the trailers electronics and also acted as a video chat device, Lyra saw the name of her agent appear. She had been expecting this call hours ago not long after the race had finished not the very next day, then again Harv while apparently being the best agent in the business had little passion for racing so he was often a little behind when it came to the results, only hearing the news from his assistant in passing. Not wanting to leave him hanging too long Lyra reached over to the screen and clicked the accept button before waiting for Harv to speak.

"Is this Lightning McQueen, the world's fastest racer?" Harv questioned jokingly as his voice rang out over the speaker while the screen remained black, just like normal. Harv wasn't the type of person to show his face on video chats, even when it came to talking to someone who he had spoken and attended parties with several times in the past. Lyra had signed on to Harv's agency just after she had signed her sponsorship with Rust-eze, being recommended by another of their new clientele who Lyra had practised with before the season had begun. Harv was a great agent constantly getting her invited to the best parties and signing her up for interviews however while he had the skills to play the business when it came to talking to his clients Harv's skills were almost non-existent; often ignoring or pretending to listen to what his clients had to say, including Lyra "You know it is such an honour to be your agent and it almost hurts to take ten percent of your winnings and merchandising, and ancillary rights in perpetuity. Anyway, what a race! Superstar! I didn't see it, but I heard you were great."

"Thanks, Harv." Lyra told him as she closed her laptop lid and leaned back against her chair. Of course, Harv hadn't seen the race nor had Lyra expected him to have watched it, racing just wasn't his sport though he still decided to represent serval new racers that season. Harv would rather spend his time setting up new appearances for his clients to attend rather than actually watch to see how well they fared in the completions that they competed in. In fact, one of Harv's other clients had managed to make it into the last Olympic Games and yet he never watched a single one of her events, setting up several interviews instead as she won the gold medal that year.

"Listen, they're giving you 20 tickets for the tiebreaker thing in Cali. I'll pass 'em on to your friends and family. Just shoot me the names and Harv will sort everything out for you." Harv spoke to her before suddenly becoming muffled like he had covered the phone, his voice ringing out not long after asking for 'Another glass of wine'; had he actually called her while at lunch. Harv was the type of man who put money first and client relationships second, so he spent every moment he could setting up deals that would make him and his agency more money rather than make a rapport with his clients; else he would have known that Lyra as not a social butterfly. At parties she was more than happy to say hello and make small talk for a few minutes with everyone to make connections, even going as far to give out her phone number to several other racers. However, as soon people stopped conversing with her Lyra found herself typically hanging out at either the food table or in a dark corner of the room, too afraid to really talk to people she didn't know very well.

"Right. Friends. Yes, there's a..." Lyra began to say before stopping herself mid-sentence when she hadn't been able to think of anyone to invite. Most of the people that Lyra kept in contact with were from the racing world that she had met while starting out, like Michael Schumacher who was famous on the European circuits. However Lyra had never considered him or any of the others she knew as friends, instead in her eyes they were acquittances that she occasionally talked to, and Lyra highly doubted that any of them would want to come and watch the race. Now that Lyra thought about it she couldn't name anyone in her life who she could consider her best friend, asides from maybe Mack but he would be watching the race anyway from the pit. And asking her family to attend was simply out of the question. Did she really have no one to invite?

"OK, I get it, so many friends you can't even narrow it down. Hey, when you get to town, you better make time for your best friend!" Harv told her, followed by the loud sound of a bottle cork popping. Harv was in no way her best friend or a friend in general, in fact, asides from the occasional meet up to discuss business and attending parties together so that Harv could introduce her to people of interest the pair hardly spoke to each other. And even when they did meet up the conversation never strayed from her career or how much Harv could profit from it, he hardly knew her at all. "Look champ I gotta jump. Let me know how it goes. I'm out."

And with that Harv was gone, leaving Lyra to sit in her trailer in silence, at least for a few seconds before Mack's voice sounded out over the radio; his words causing her to laugh.

"He's a bit of a douche isn't he."


	3. Cell Block Tango

_So there is now just over 2000 extra words at the end of this chapter so make sure to read them as its the beginning of the court session and also Docs first appearance._

* * *

 **BANG!**

Lyra awoke with a gasp as she shot up from the stiff mattress that she had been laying down upon, the thin ratty blanket that had once been covering her body and providing her with little warmth now laid on the floor from her movements. Lyra regretted her actions instantly however as she was suddenly bombarded with a massive pain in the back of her head, feeling as if she had been hit by a bat, repeatedly. As Lyra moved her hands to clutch the back of her head to check for injuries she let out a painful moan when she finally reached the sensitive area, poking and trailing her fingers over it for a few moments to make sure there wasn't a cut at the back of her head. It was at this point while Lyra was inspecting her head that she finally noticed how injured her arms were, both covered in clean bandages while dark purple bruises peeked out of the edge of the wrapping, what had happened to her to cause such injuries.

As Lyra sat there checking her head and arms she looked around her surroundings in confusion, pondering the mysteries of her lack of memory of the previous night's events and the unknown room that she had been sleeping in. Instead of being tucked in her bed back in her trailer Lyra found herself laying on a metal cot inside an old and outdated jail cell, surrounded by stone walls littered with tally marks and rusty bars in such a deep shade of red that they almost matched Lyra's hair colour. However, before Lyra could begin to try and piece together what had happened the night before and how she had ended up in a jail cell a man walked into view, standing just in front of her on the other side of the bars.

"Time to get up City Girl." The man spoke as he inspected the time on a wristwatch that looked as old as the jail cell. The first thing that Lyra noticed about the mysterious man in front of her was the magnificent moustache that rested on his face, the collection of hairs below his nose thick and well groomed, it was very obvious that the man took great pride in his appearance. Like the cell she was sitting in the police uniform that the man wore also looked as if it had stepped out of history, the years of wear and tear clear as day with mismatched thread used to sew up rips that the uniform had gained over his years of service, which appeared to have started in the 60s or 70s by the style of clothes that he wore. The last thing of interest that Lyra took in about the man's appearance was the newly polished yet littered with scratch marks Sheriffs badge that had been pinned over his heart. Upon seeing the badge Lyra let out a sigh of relief while the same feeling washed over her body, for a moment she had considered the possibility that she had been kidnapped by one of her fans, thankfully that didn't appear to be the case. "You're wanted at the courthouse in 10 minutes."

 _'What.'_ Lyra thought to herself upon hearing his words, what in the world had she done last night that warranted her to go to court, what had happened altogether. The night before was mostly a blur, with Lyra's last memory involving her sitting inside of Lightning after she had gotten tired sitting in her desk chair all day, deciding to sit in one of Lightning's more comfortable seats than on the wooden menace. She had been talking to Mack and had only just managed to persuade him into resting at a motel for the night, both of them fighting to keep their eyes open, tired from the long journey they were travelling. While Lyra hadn't done much that day asides from sit in front of her laptop watching the reaction of the world and her fans to the championship race she was still exhausted from the day before, running on the 4-5 hours of sleep that she had managed just after she had spent 8 straight hours racing. It also didn't help that Lyra hadn't been sleeping well before the race, her nervousness growing with every day that passed coming up to the big day, resulting in her only getting a few hours sleep each night due to her nervousness and excitement keeping her awake. At some point Lyra must have fallen asleep inside of Lightning, however, she had no idea what had happened afterwards or where Lightning was at that moment.

As the unnamed Sheriff opened up the cell door Lyra stood up to meet him, however she was quickly forced back onto the cot, the pain radiating from her body making her gasp in pain as she sat down once again, unable to stand from the amount of pain that she felt from every corner of her body; what had happened to her the night before to cause her such injury. As Lyra sat there breathing deeply as she got used to the pain the Sherriff stood at the cell door waiting patiently, having not tried to move again after Lyra had put her arm out to signal to him to stay there, while it was nice that he had wanted to help (practically jumping out of his skin when he had heard her gasp) Lyra knew that if he touched her she would be worse off; she just needed a moment to learn how to accommodate the pain and she would be ready to go.

After a long moment Lyra stood up once again, however this time she didn't drop back down onto the cot despite the amount of pain she was in, instead Lyra clenched her teeth to fight back her gasps and moans of pain. Stepping over the blanket that lay on the floor Lyra made her way over to the jail cell door, with each step she took only making her become more aware how injured she actually was. However, when Lyra finally reached the door and the Sheriff she wasn't immediately handcuffed and carted off to the courthouse like she had expected instead, the nameless Sheriff simply nodded his head towards a brown door to the side of the room rather than to the glass door leading outside to wherever she was. It took Lyra a moment before she realised what he was offering her, but when she did finally figure it out Lyra let out a small 'Thank you' before rushing as fast as she could without causing herself terrible pain towards the bathroom.

After washing her hands Lyra spent a few minutes admiring her reflection in the mirror, inspecting the injuries littered across her body and attempting to make herself somewhat presentable for her court session. There had to be a hospital or at least a doctor's clinic somewhere nearby, the bandages wrapped around her multiple limbs clearly done by someone with either a lot of practice or a medical degree, Lyra had never seen neater wrapping in her life and she had been injured a lot over the years to know the difference between what was great and what was terrible. It appeared that Lyra's right arm was the worst injured part of her body, the area between her wrist and elbow completely wrapped up while she also had a few bruises littered across the rest of her arm not hidden underneath the bandages. Luckily Lyra was unable to tell the difference between the pain in her arm and the rest of her body, every part of her currently hurting the exact same amount so it didn't bother her as much as any other injury she had gained; though Lyra knew that the feeling wouldn't last much longer.

As Lyra stood there running her hands through her hair to try and brush away the many knots that had formed Lyra finally noticed that she was still wearing the clothes that she had on the day before, at least whatever had happened several hours earlier hadn't resulted in her clothes being cut away to access her injuries. However, the outfit that Lyra wore was now dirty, her red tank top, black leggings and white converse covered in dust and sand as if she had rolled around in the desert, was that where she was. There was one key element missing from Lyra's ensemble however, her racing jacket, it hadn't been with her inside of the jail cell nor had she seen it hung up inside of the police station, had it been destroyed, lost, cut away, Lyra had to know it; was one of her most prized possessions.

After giving her hair one final run through in a last attempt to make it look at least half presentable for court Lyra opened the bathroom door and slowly made her way back over to the Sheriff, who was standing beside the jail cell she had slept in with a pair of handcuffs in his hands. Lyra didn't know much about the court system despite helping her sister revises for her bar exam, but she was fairly certain that a defendant (in this case herself) shouldn't be handcuffed when walking into a courtroom unless there was a reasonable belief that she needed to be restrained, like believing she would attack someone; which she would never do even if she wasn't injured. However, Lyra was too sore and confused about her actions the night before to make an argument or stand for much longer without her legs giving in. And so, Lyra offered the unnamed man her hands, wincing slightly when the cold handcuffs made contact with her wrists, however the Sheriff had been very kind and had only used the first lock on the cuff so that they weren't tight against her injury, which Lyra quietly thanked him for.

As the pair made their way out of the station and into the mysterious destination that Lyra had found herself in they came face to face with a horrendous sight that caused Lyra to gasp in surprise and horror when she saw what lie ahead of them. The town had only one road which began at a large official looking building (that Lyra assumed was the courthouse) and ended well into the horizon, far past the desert and valleys that lie beyond towards who knows where. However, the towns road was completely destroyed, with a massive line of swaying upturned tarmac spanning the majority of the road until it ended at a sign in the distance that Lyra wasn't able to read from where she was standing however she was able to make out a noticeable dent in the metal sign as if it had been crashed into. The sign, however, looked familiar in fact the entire town did despite the fact that Lyra was a hundred percent certain that she had never journeyed to the town once in her entire life, how could she possibly forget a town with only one road.

In an instant, however, all of Lyra's memories from the night before came rushing back into her mind, the sight of the sign managing to break the block on her memory, allowing her to recall what she had gone through the previous night. No wonder the sign in the distances had looked so familiar to her, Lyra had ended up crashing head first into it right before her memories ended, she must have been knocked out from the impact. As bits and pieces of Lyra's memories began to drift back into her mind the Sheriff lead her towards his cop car with ease, her body running on autopilot as the memories continued to come pouring back into her mind, getting lost, her breaks not working, her wheels turning the wrong way, it was all coming back to Lyra as well as the truth behind the roads destruction that had been hidden away in her forgotten memories.

 _She had done this._

* * *

"Wait here, your attorney will be with you in a moment." The Sherriff told Lyra before he turned on his heels and made his way into the courtroom, leaving her all on her own in the hallway to ponder her thoughts while she waited for her lawyer. There was no doubt in Lyra's mind that no one she cared for had any idea where she was at that moment nor did they send her a layer to use to defend her actions from the night before, she was all on her own in a strange town in the middle of nowhere awaiting a trail, whoever her lawyer was they had to be local. Did anyone even realise that she was missing, if Mack had noticed that Lyra had fallen asleep that he wouldn't have interrupted her, allowing her to sleep the rest of the journey to California even though she had promised to stay up with him for the majority of the journey.

But Mack would arrive at the International Speedway in a few hours if it was 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning like Lyra thought it was, well ahead of Chick and 'The King' like he had promised her. However not long after Mack would get there both he and the world would find out that she and Lightning were missing, and a panic would set in and spread. But the world's reaction mattered little to Lyra though she was certain that as soon as Harv found out he would squeeze out every penny he could from the experience, racking in the money from interviews and newspaper articles about her disappearance. However, the reactions of Mack, Dusty and Rusty mattered a great deal to Lyra, they were closer to her than most of her family and allowing them to worry and panic over her made her stomach turn, hopefully she would have the opportunity after the court session to ring them and let them know that she was alright.

"MORNING!" Lyra screamed as a voice suddenly shouted behind her while a pair of hands grabbed a hold of her shoulders, causing Lyra to jump as far away as she could to get away from the stranger. When she was content with the distance that she had made between herself and the stranger Lyra turned around on her heels so that she was facing the owner of the male voice that had appeared out of nowhere and surprised her. Lyra hated it when people snuck up behind her, it reminded her too much of her school days when Lyra had been bullied daily by her peers for her odd habits of staying inside the library every hour that she could and knowing more about racing and cars than 'Any proper young lady should'. They would often sneak up behind her while she was too engrossed in a book to notice their presence, pulling her hair or shoving bugs down the back of her uniform before running off to plan the next cruel prank.

"Hahaha! Boy, I was wonderin' when you was gonna get here." The man standing in front of Lyra told her as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his washed-out jeans, a goofy looking smile on his face as his eyes trailed up and down Lyra's body, taking in her appearance just like she was doing to him. The unknown man in front of her looked to be only a few years older than Lyra although she couldn't place if he was in his late 20s like herself or in his early 30s, though if he shaved his stubble Lyra was certain that it would be much easier for her to figure out. His stubble was a natural reddish brown along with the rest of his hair which was only slightly longer than Lyra's own, though surprisingly messier in style even though Lyra had not had access to a hairbrush that morning and had to brush her hair with her fingers. The most distinguishing feature of the man, however, was his buck teeth that had been the first thing Lyra had noticed about him before taking the rest of the man in, her eyes immediately drawn to the teeth the second he had opened his mouth to speak.

"Are you my lawyer?" Lyra asked the man while silently praying that he wasn't, the attire he wore was completely inappropriate for a court session even if they were in a small town and everyone likely knew each other. The man wore an open red and grey checkered flannel shirt over a white t-shirt, a pair of washed-out jeans and a pair of brown leather boots that looked as if they had seen better days, the leather cracked and worn out while also having spots of what appeared to be oil scattered across the leather. A lawyer was supposed to dress to impress, with suits more expensive than their rent so that they look professional while representing both their client and themselves in front of the judge and jury while court was in session, or at least that's what Lyra's older sister had always told her; and the man currently standing in front of Lyra looked in no way professional.

"Shucks no, I just tow cars. I'm Tow Mater but everyone just calls me Mater." Mater told Lyra as he took his right hand out of his jean pocket and offered it to her to shake. Lyra stood there for a moment in silence wondering if Mater was actually being serious or joking, her hands were still handcuffed in front of her, surely he could see them and knew that she wouldn't be able to offer her own hand to give him a handshake. However, when Mater made no attempt to move or speak while he waited for her response Lyra was made certain by his actions that he wasn't having her on and making fun of her situation. And so, Lyra decided to lift up her arms and offer him her pinkie finger, unable to manoeuvre her hand to give him a proper handshake with the cuffs on. Mater didn't seem to mind this however, instead he simply hooked his own pinkie finger with Lyra's and began moving both of their hands up and down like with a typical handshake. "Mama had my future planned out for me."

"How nice of her." Lyra told him as she stared at him in shock and surprise, wondering if she had either spoken out loud her thoughts without realising or if Mater had somehow peered into her mind. While the two had been shaking pinkies, Lyra had thought about how strange and weird a name Tow was for a person and how ironic it was that Mater ended up actually towing cars for a living, what had his parents been thinking naming him Tow; who named their child after a verb. What Lyra didn't expect however was for Mater to suddenly answer her thoughts which she was certain she didn't accidentally say out loud, perhaps he had seen the look of confusion and disbelief on her face before whenever he told others his first name and figured out what she was thinking.

"You must be waiting for Miss Sally, she's the town attorney." Mater told Lyra as he finally released his pinkie from hers, a goofy smile on his face as he shoved his hand back into his jean pocket. The one good thing about finding out that she had been assigned a lawyer was that Lyra now knew for certain that no one had any idea where she was, and neither did she, the towns name still a mystery to Lyra. If she had been given the opportunity to use a phone and the court hearing hadn't been scheduled for that morning Lyra doubted that her and Miss Sally's paths would ever have had crossed asides from the other woman being a face in the crowd at the trail. After all Lyra's lawyer was her older sister who she knew would drop everything and travel all the way across the world if she had to to defend Lyra in court, but that hadn't been an option that morning, hopefully this Miss Sally was just as good a lawyer as her sister. "She's also my fiancée."

"Congratulations." Lyra told Mater as she placed her hands down so that they were resting in front of her, not that they could do much else handcuffed together. If Lyra had been able to contact her sister this whole affair would be over with already and she would be on her way to California with just enough time to spare to get there before Chick. If Eleanor was by her side the charges against Lyra would be dismissed in less than 5 minutes, after all no one had asked for her name, taken her fingerprints or even read the charges against her and Lyra doubted that Miss Sally would bring any of that up, it was hardly a trail and more like a neighbourhood meeting.

Lyra was guilty of a crime however, she had completely destroyed the towns main road, upturning the tarmac and making it a nuisance for people to drive on, but it wasn't Lyra's fault and she had never meant to damage the town in any way, shape or form. Something had happened to Lightning, his dashboard had been rewired until everything did the exact opposite of what it was meant to do, pedals had been cut or swapped, her wheels turned in the opposite direction of her steering wheel and all of the gears had randomly changed until she no longer knew where reverse was let along first gear; hopefully Lyra would be given the chance to explain what had happened the night before from her perspective.

"Nah, I'm just kiddin'. She just likes me for my body." As soon as the words left Mater's mouth Lyra let out the loudest and wholehearted laugh of her life. Not the kind of laugh that only lasted a few seconds and left people wondering if the laughter was genuine or not, but a full on laughing fit that nearly had Lyra toppling over in pain from how hard her sides hurt when she had finished. Lyra couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard, in fact if she was being completely honest with herself Lyra didn't think she had ever laughed like that before period. Because of her 'odd nature' Lyra had never had friends growing up to joke around with asides from the occasional tease from her siblings, and as for the rest of her family it didn't get any better, Lyra's mother and father had been so serious and stoic growing up that she could probably count the number of times she had seen either of them smile on one hand, laughter appeared to be something that Lyra had severely missed out on growing up and it was nice to finally have a proper laugh for once in her life; even if her circumstances weren't the best.

"So, if you tow cars does that mean you towed mine?" Lyra asked Mater after she had finally calmed down from her laughing fit, her sides still aching however Lyra wasn't sure if the soreness was from the laughter or her injuries. Speaking of injuries if Lyra was practically covered from head to toe in bandages and bruises than how badly beaten up was Lightning, he had crashed headfirst into a metal sign with such a force that Lyra had been knocked out after all, there was no way he came out of the crash unscathed. Lightning had been built to keep Lyra as safe as possible in the likely event of a crash, which the pair had been in several times since she had first acquired him 6 years ago, so his body was sturdy and able to withstand massive amounts of damage. But never in all of her years of racing had Lyra been as badly injured as she was today, in fact, the worst injury she had ever received from a crash before had been a small curt of her arm while Lightning had only received a small dent. If Lyra's injuries were a reflection of Lightning's then would he be able to race if they managed to make it to California in time?

"Sure did. Was going to take it to my impound but-" Mater began to tell Lyra however he was quickly interrupted when the entrance doors to the courthouse opened behind the pair and a woman's voice rang out.

"Mater. No talking to my client."

"Howdy, Miss Sally." Mater exclaimed loudly as both he and Lyra turned towards the entrance of the courthouse to stare at the young woman who just walked in and shouted at them. Miss Sally as Mater called her was an extremely attractive and professional looking young woman, with long flowing blonde hair that had been curled so elegantly that it would put professional hairdressers to shame. Sally must have spent hours getting ready that morning to prepare for their court session, just seeing her made Lyra feel more underdressed than she already did in her tank top and converse, a stark contrast to Miss Sally's white blouse, pale blue suit jacket and matching pants; it was as if Miss Sally had stepped straight out of a magazine cover she looked so gorgeous and polished. Miss Sally looked exactly as Lyra had envisioned her when Mater had mentioned that she would be Lyra's lawyer, professional but stylish all at the same time, in fact, she could even put Lyra's sister to shame she looked so good.

"Mater, do you think you could go wait inside, we need a minute to talk." Sally told her friend as she strolled over to the pair, her voice a lot calmer than when she had first appeared. With Sally now close to her Lyra was able to get a better look at the lawyer and found herself becoming jealous of Sally with how well put together she looked in comparison to Lyra. Sally's makeup looked incredibly glamorous and minimalist all at the same time, with a layer of foundation that hid any blemishes (if she even had any in the first place), a lovely shade of eyeshadow that matched the shade of pale blue as her outfit and a gorgeous shade of red lipstick that reminded Lyra of Lightning's paint job. How unfair was it that Miss Sally looked as if she had walked straight off the runway while Lyra wore an outfit that she would wear to the gym, her hair messy and bandages covering at least half of her body.

"See ya." Mater told the pair of females before turning on his heels and making his way towards the courtroom doors, pausing for a moment to look back and give the two a wave and a goofy looking smile to show his support before he opened one of the doors. As Mater stepped inside of the courtroom both Lyra and Sally cringed a little as they heard the commotion going on inside that had previously been blocked out by the large wooden doors. Nothing that the pair could make out sounded good, with multiple voices screaming out complaints and remarks against Lyra and her actions, which the racer expected to only get worse when she finally made her appearance, believing that when she walked into the room she would be met with louder and harsher words from the town's people when they finally saw her, the cause of their problems.

"I'm pleading guilty." Lyra told Sally as she turned away from the courtroom door to stare instead at the lawyer, thoughts of dread entering her head as she imagined the reception she would face when they made their way towards the Well. Lyra had been shouted at plenty of times in the past year, with as many as 80 thousand people cheering her on and screaming her and Lightning's names as they raced around the track. However, the screams in the courtroom were completely different to those of racing fans, with angry comments about how she was 'A bad driver', 'A fascist' and deserved to be burned by someone's blowtorch of all things. Hopefully, Lyra would be able to apologise to all the injured parties after the trial was over. "I remember the majority of it now, I did it."

"You couldn't remember?" Sally asked Lyra, her voice filled with concern and shock as she stared at the racer, her eyes trailing over Lyra's whole body as she took in the scale of Lyra's injuries for the first time since she had come in. As Sally took in each and every one of the bandages that were scattered across Lyra's body and the purple marks of forming bruises peeking out from the tops of them it became very clear to Lyra that no one outside the sheriff and maybe the town's doctor had thought that she would be as badly injured as she was. And why would they, in their minds she was most likely seen as some hotshot punk who liked to speed and cause mischief, and the comments from inside of the courtroom had been proof of that.

"I banged my head pretty badly when I crashed into that sign." Lyra told Sally as she leaned her head back to signal to her injury, still not fully convinced that she hadn't cut her head open despite running her hands over the painful area to check multiple times while she had been in the bathroom only 10 minutes prior. The night before was without a doubt the scariest moment of Lyra's life, even more terrifying than when she had forced herself to navigate her way through the massive crash at the Piston Cup Final. During the crash Lyra had to be vigilant knowing that if she made one wrong move not only would she lose the championship but possibly her life, after all she had only milliseconds to react to the onslaught of cars appearing out of the smoke and if she had made a wrong turn at any point Lyra would most likely be in the hospital right about now, not in the middle of nowhere waiting to appear in court.

However back on the track Lyra had complete control over Lightning, knowing exactly how he would move and react with every turn of his wheel and use of his pedals, however last night that knowledge was completely useless. Every piece of equipment inside of his dashboard no longer worked the way it was meant to, seemingly having been rewired overnight until Lyra no longer knew how certain pieces worked anymore they had been changed so drastically. It left Lyra at a loss of how to drive Lightning at all let alone safely, it was a miracle in itself that she hadn't crashed into someone on the interstate and managed to narrowly escape crashing into a moving train. "Took me about 5 minutes before it all came back."

"We'll have Doc take another look at you when we're done." Sally told Lyra as she fiddled with the corners of the file in her hand, containing within it the report that Doc had written out the night before detailing Lyra's injuries. The majority of the town had witnessed the racer speed into town, watching in horror from inside of Flo's as the main road was torn apart before Lyra finally came to a stop crashing into the old drive-thru theatre sign. The second she had seen the crash Sally had sprinted out the door and heading straight to Doc's Clinic, knowing that whoever had crashed would need immediate medical attention. In the end, Sally had ended up helping Doc treat Lyra's unconscious body until the early hours of the morning, cleaning and fetching his equipment as he picked out glass from cuts and bandaged up her limbs. When all of Lyra's injuries had been treated and patched up Sally had reluctantly left to get some sleep after Doc had warned her that she would most likely have to represent the unconscious and unknown driver a few hours later in court. Yet Sally had hardly slept, the images of Lyra's injuries unable to leave her mind as she laid in her bed tossing and turning for hours until she finally crashed an hour before her alarm was scheduled to go off.

"Is he the one who patched me up?" Lyra asked as she looked down at her impeccable bandaged right arm, admiring the impressive job. Over the years Lyra had been injured more times than she could count being the easy target for bullies growing up, resulting in black eyes and the occasional broken limb it was so bad and yet Lyra had never come across such amazing skills at bandaging than she had in this little town in the desert. Doctors, nurses, the paramedics at the track, none of them could come close to having the skills of whoever had treated her, it felt as if the bandages weren't even there at all despite the fact that she could see them clear as day on her body.

"Yep." Sally replied as she laced her arm with Lyra's least injured one, gently turning the pair of them towards the doors of the courtroom, it was time to face the music and get this whole affair over with. "He's also your judge."

"What."

* * *

"The Radiator Springs Court will come to order!" The Sheriff shouted out from his position in front of the Bench, his outburst causing the townspeople to become silent before turning their heads to face the entrance of the courtroom where a knock had been heard a few seconds earlier, signalling to everyone inside that Sally and the accused were ready to come in. Most of the town (sans Sally, Mater, The Sheriff and Doc) had arrived together after having breakfast at Flo's, waiting in anticipation as they commented and complained about the speedster who had appeared in the middle of the night and destroyed the town road, their anger towards the criminal growing with every minute that they were made to wait for the court session to begin.

After a few moments of calm and quiet had passed the doors to the courtroom finally opened, granting the majority of the town their first look at the criminal who had sped into town the night before and caused them all a great grievance. Most of the citizens had gone on with their lives after the crash, spending the rest of the night drinking and chatting with their friends before retiring to their beds, all the while ignoring the damage done to the road even though it could be seen from every corner of the town. The only residents who had given the speedster a second thought were those who had helped her, The Sheriff who had dragged the racer out of her car and was the first one to see the extent of her injuries, Sally who had ran the second she had seen the crash and helped the best she could, Mater who had towed Lightning away and inspected the damage the impact had done to the race car and Doc, who had spent hours cleaning and wrapping wounds until the early hours of the morning; they were the only members of the town who seemed to have any concern for the speedster.

As soon as Lyra came into view several of the town's occupants began screaming once again, finally able to hurl their insults directly at her rather than at the air or at the Sheriff and Mater like they had accidentally when the two males had walked in, thinking it was Lyra walking through the doors. However not all of the towns citizens began complaining after seeing Lyra, instead their comments caught in their throats as they looked upon the injured racer and took in the extent of her injuries, noticing immediately the bandages and bruises that littered her body. None of the townspeople had known any more than what they had seen happen the night before, they had no idea how much damage had been caused to the red car that had sped past, how injured the crash would leave the driver and that the driver was, in fact, a young woman.

With every step she took towards the Well Lyra found it harder to ignore the less than pleasant welcome she had received, instead she tried to focus her gaze and attention on the Bench as she passed the small angry crowd that appeared to be made up of the entire town; at least she had been expecting such a reaction and she hadn't walked into the courtroom completely blind. During the small drive from the police station to the courthouse Lyra had seen the damage that she had done to the small town, observing the way the road was upturned as the Sheriff told her about the personal damage she had also caused some of the residences, including damage to a business and scratching the paint job of someone car; as soon as she had seen and heard about the damages Lyra knew that the town's view of her would be extremely negative.

Lyra was nervous beyond belief at the possibility of being on the stand, clutching onto Sally's arm tightly in an effort to try and calm herself until they were finally standing behind their desk, a sense of dread seeping into Lyra's stomach as they waited patiently for the session to begin. The first and last time Lyra had stepped inside a courtroom had been many years ago, during the Christmas break of her final year of schooling when her older sister had taken her to one of the many courthouses in New York, hoping to inspire Lyra to follow in her footsteps and become a lawyer herself. However, the world of law and justice had never appealed to Lyra, whose dream of becoming a racer was as strong as ever at that age and no amount of persuading would ever make her falter from that dream.

"All rise! The Honourable Doc Hudson presiding." The Sheriff suddenly announced from his position in front of the Well, the courtroom becoming silent once again as everyone asides from Lyra turned to face the doors, awaiting the arrival of the mysterious doctor who had treated Lyra and also happened to be her judge. Lyra had woken more than once while the good doctor had patched her up, drifting in and out of consciousness as he barked orders at someone and tended to her injuries with a gentle hand, but despite the several times she had awoken Lyra couldn't recall the doctors face, unsure if she had actually seen him at all or if she had simply stared at a bright light the entire time while he spoke. Lyra had no idea what he looked like or how he would act outside of treating her, however, when the Sheriff began speaking again Lyra began to grow slightly fearful of the man.

 _"May Doc have mercy on your soul."_

Suddenly the courtroom doors flung open, the man of the hour had finally made his appearance, the man who had patched up her wounds with such a gentle hand, whose voice had calmed her down every time she had awoken in pain and confusion, and the man who was currently terrifying her beyond belief with every step he took towards her, the mysterious Doc Hudson was in. As the good doctor grew closer it became harder for Lyra to keep her eyes glued to the Bench, Doc's words cutting into her like a knife and the repeating bang of his cane on the floor causing her to cringe similarly to how the sound of the wooden courtroom doors slamming into the walls had moments before.

"I want to know just who's responsible for wrecking my town Sheriff." Doc spoke as he made his way into the courtroom, his gaze focused on the back of the speedster's head who was the only one in the room to not turn and look at him. The identity of the redhead was a complete mystery, both the Sheriff and Doc had been unable to find any form of identification anywhere on the girl's body or inside of her vehicle, they had no idea who she was and had only a theory as to why she had driven into Radiator Springs in the first place, a very sinister theory as to how she had found the town in her hour of need. However, until Doc found out the truth about her circumstances he would remain angry at the girl who had sped into town the night before and had destroyed their road. "I want her head on a platter! I'm gonna put her in jail till she rots. No, check that. I'm going to put her in jail till the jail rots on top of her, and then I'm gonna move her to a new jail and let that jail rot. I'm- "

Doc's words caught in his throat as he sat down in his chair at the Bench, unable to continue speaking as he finally came face to face with Lyra McQueen. He had been so focused in tending to her injuries the night before that he hadn't paused for a moment to truly take in how beautiful the woman in front of him was, nor how young she had to be. Standing next to Sally, who looked more professional and put together now than he had ever seen her, the young woman appeared out of place in a courtroom, though he couldn't hold that against her as she had only awoken not even an hour ago. Doc had scheduled the court session to start at 10 am, hoping that the mysterious speedster would awaken with plenty of time on her hands so that she could discuss her case properly with Sally as well as have a chance to clean herself up, however that hadn't happened and now the young woman looked like a deer caught in headlights, confused out of her mind and wearing an ill-fitting outfit for a court session.

Her hair was a mess, with her parting crooked and half of her hair sticking up and out of place, the lack of a proper brush immediately noticeable. Her clothes were no better, her red tank top and leggings were highly inappropriate for court and also filthy, covered in dust and dirt from the desert outside, the polar opposite to Sally's pristine business suit. It began to make Doc wonder what the speedster would have looked like if she had awoken in time to prepare, would her bed hair instead be styled in curls or straighten out, would her outfit be made up of pale colours like Sally's or dark shades like his own, would his reaction upon seeing her have been the same.

In that moment, as Doc sat there behind the Bench staring at Lyra the young racer was doing the same from her position behind the desk, her gaze fixated on the mysterious good doctor as she took in his appearance. The first thing about the doctor that had caught Lyra's attention was the older man's attractive voice, his words while frightening had brought butterflies to her stomach and made her knees weak, though Lyra wasn't sure if it was because she found his voice appealing or from the fear growing inside of her with every step he took towards the Bench. The second thing that Lyra noticed about Doc was also the first thing her eyes were drawn to when she finally gazed upon his face, his age, while his wrinkles were few and far between it was apparent to Lyra that the good doctor was a fairly old man compared to nearly everyone else in the courtroom, seeming to be only younger than an older woman sitting near the back of the room wearing an out of date black dress.

It was very clear to Lyra that Doc Hudson took great pride in his appearance, his grooming and choice of clothing making it apparent that his appearance mattered a great deal to him. Like the Sheriff the good doctor also had a thick well-groomed moustache though the ravages of time had taken most of the colour out of his locks, the pale blonde hairs on his face and head easily mistakable as being white to anyone who wasn't closely inspecting him the way Lyra was. The immaculate dark blue suit that Doc wore appeared to be as old as the rest of the town, though well-kept and mended to a professional quality every time there had ever been a rip, like the small tear on his shoulder that Lyra had noticed upon her close inspection of the handsome doctor.

Lyra couldn't explain what it was about Doc Hudson that had caused a hoard of butterflies to make a home in her stomach, what it was that sparked such an immediate attraction. Perhaps it was his attractive voice that sent shivers down her spine whenever he spoke and how she couldn't wait for the moment that he would speak her name. Maybe it was his handsome face and demeanour that portrayed him as a gentleman, true Doc didn't look like the typical man that a young woman such as Lyra should be attracted to, but he had his own charm and style about him that Lyra found alluring. Or could it be the memory of his gentle hands on her skin as he patched her up, how they carefully wrapped her bandages and picked glass out of her cuts in such a way that had her craving to feel his hands on her skin again if only for a moment?

Lyra history of past partners wasn't lengthy, in fact, she had only ever been in one notable relationship since she had started dating at 18 and that had only lasted a few months before they both realised that they would be better off as friends than lovers. And yet the instant attraction that Lyra felt for Doc Hudson, who had to be older than her own father, felt stronger than any of the emotions that she had experienced in any of her previous relationships, if only she had more time on her hands to properly get to know him and possibly peruse what she was feeling.

"I think we should start at the beginning don't you kid."


	4. Legally Blonde

_So here it is, the rewrite of Chapter 5 technically, the entire courtroom scene (or at least what I've written of it) is now at the bottom of this chapter. Hopefully someday I will write the rest of the scene but for now I've cut it off just as Sally begins her speech, if I went on I'd have to describe the entire town and I'm still not 100% sure how I want some of them to look phsyically, as soon as I do I'll proberly add that on at a later date. Now that the rewrite has been completed they'll be some new content next chapter for you guys to look forward to. Until then._

* * *

 **HONK!**

In an instant, Lyra was awake, her dream of standing on the winning podium at the tie-breaker race in California and becoming the first rookie to ever win the Piston Cup interrupted by the deafening sound of a truck horn going off. For a moment, as Lyra sat there in her sleepy state she mistook the culprit for Mack sounding his horn to either signal to another driver on the interstate or to wake her up from the accidental nap that she had taken after promising to remain awake with him for the entire journey. Lyra hadn't meant to fall asleep inside of Lightning, but she had been so tired and comfy while sitting on one of his padded seats that she no longer had the strength to keep her eyes open, drifting off as she listened to Mack tell a story that he had heard from one of the other truck drivers at the final, an interesting tale involving a certain Hostile Takeover Bank spokesman, a jar of honey and a fish; hopefully now that she was awake she would be able to hear the end of it.

However, in the split second it took for Lyra to observe her surroundings she found herself facing a sight that she hadn't expected to see upon waking up. Lightning had been parked inside of the haulier in reverse, meaning that when Lyra awoke she should have found herself across from the trailer's ramp, not a speeding truck that appeared to have no intention of slowing down. As soon as she realised that the truck's headlights were real and not, in fact, a hallucination brought on by her sleepy state Lyra sprang into action, quickly starting Lightning's engine and putting him into reverse before speeding backwards so that she could build some distance between herself and the oncoming truck.

Realising that she couldn't continue driving backwards forever Lyra peered into her rear-view mirror to try and find somewhere, anywhere to park for a moment so that she could collect herself without worrying about the possibility of crashing into another vehicle, able to go over the events that had lead to her being abandoned in the middle of the interstate safely and without interruption. Luckily for Lyra she soon spotted the wide-open stretch of desert to the side of the interstate, the barren land, lack of civilization and other drivers making it the perfect spot for her to stop and catch her breath. And so, when Lyra was finally certain that there were no cars coming down the lane she needed to cross to reach the desert and that the gap between Lightning and the oncoming truck still in front of her was large enough that she wouldn't accidentally get clipped when swapping lanes Lyra began to put her plan to work, turning her wheel and setting her sights on the large patch of dirt to her left.

The idea that Lyra had created involved heading into the seemingly endless open desert to her left which offered her plenty of room in case she accidentally overshoot Lightning's speed and went further than she originally planned, saving her from the very likely chance of hitting one of the oncoming cars on the opposite side of the interstate. The possibility of actually crashing into an oncoming vehicle was high no matter what patch of dirt Lyra aimed for, the spacious desert to her left or the thin stretch of dirt to her right that separated the two lanes of the interstate, either way she was at risk of hitting something in an attempt to stop and rest but the wide empty desert had the least chance of her crashing so that was the side Lyra was aiming for.

However, this plan had to be thrown out of the window and reworked the second that Lyra began turning her steering wheel, the young racer quickly discovering that her trusted partner Lighting no longer moved in the direction she had intended him to go. Instead of drifting over to the endless wide desert like she had inputted Lyra now found herself moving towards the other lane of traffic and the small patch of dirt that lie in front of it, with no other option but to continue forward on the path she hadn't chosen or risk crashing into the truck that was still coming towards her.

Knowing that there was nothing that she could do now that she had already started heading in the direction of the small stretch of dirt Lyra continued on, carefully aiming to land right in the middle of the sandy patch so that she avoided the possibility of crashing into any cacti or another car and getting badly injured. As soon as she finally felt Lightning's back tires hit the dirt behind her Lyra sprung into action, rotating her steering wheel as fast as she could until she was facing the same direction as everyone else on the side of the interstate she was on. Lyra had figured out rather quickly that she would eventually have to travel down that very lane in order to reunite with Mack so she had decided to get herself and Lightning ready to go now rather than later. But before the hunt for her friend could begin Lyra first had to take a small breather to calm herself down and also go over what had just happened.

As Lyra sat there slowly piecing together everything she knew about the situation she was in Lyra suddenly became aware how cold she was sitting inside of Lightning, the adrenaline that she had been feeling no longer keeping her ignorant to the chilly and windy desert outside her window, causing Lyra to zip up the racing jacket she was wearing as far as it could go in a pitiful attempt to warm up. How in the world had this happened, what had caused her to wind up in the middle of the interstate narrowly escaping getting run over by a truck when she was supposed to be safe inside her trailer towed along by Mack, who was currently continuing on towards California unaware that he was leaving her and Lightning behind.

Lyra couldn't just sit there in the cold any longer she had to get moving now before it was too late and Mack got too far ahead of her, the distance between them getting bigger and bigger with every second she just sat there in the cold. Lyra had no way to contact Mack having left her mobile on her desk to charge so she knew that in order to be reunited with the trucker she would have to catch up to him on her own, driving directly in front of him to let him know that she was missing from the trailer; but first she had to find him amidst a sea of trucks.

Lyra didn't waste another minute quickly hitting the gas pedal as hard as she possibly could before she speed forward, re-joining the interstate and darting past all of the different trucks and cars around her just as easily as she had done during the Piston Cup Final the day before. With every truck she accelerated past Lyra would shift her gaze from the road ahead to the trailers the trucks were hauling, hoping that she would eventually recognise one of them as her own and put a stop to this whole ordeal before the panic that she had felt creeping upon her no longer became ignorable. However, after several minutes of travelling Lyra still hadn't caught sight of Mack or her trailer despite passing by nearly 50 trucks, could it be possible that she already drove ahead of him earlier on in the hunt, and if that was indeed the case then would they be reunited again before either of them reached California.

Lyra didn't know what to do. If Mack really was still ahead of her then everything was fine, all she had to do was continue with the plan and the pair of them would eventually reunite and continue on towards California together as if this whole thing never happened. But if her worst fear had come to pass, if she had somehow missed Mack in the swarm of trucks trailing behind in her dust then was there any hope that she would see him again before either of them reached the California coastline. Lyra had never driven to California before, only ever flown in so she had no idea how to actually get to the city of Los Angeles let alone the International Speedway. It also didn't help that Lyra had no map stuffed away inside of Lightning to help her nor had she been looking at any of the signs posted around the interstate, too busy focusing on inspecting trailers to read directions. If she didn't manage to find Mack that could she honestly drive to LA on her own?

As Lyra continued speeding on she began to find it harder to breathe, the possibility of being stuck driving alone on the interstate for hours on end inside of a broken (or was sabotaged a better word for it she didn't know for sure) car was making the panic that Lyra had been trying with all her might to ignore rise up until it was all she could feel and think about, disturbing thoughts of ending up crashing into another car refusing to leave her mind. All Lyra wanted to do was scream and cry and breathe all at the same time, but she had no choice but to carry on and keep a close eye on her surroundings, for if she let those feelings and thoughts get the better of her for even a second than her chances of getting into an accident increased, but keeping a level head was a hard thing to do with the lack of oxygen entering her brain and the shaking of her hands on the steering wheel; Lyra needed to take a break and calm down soon before she ended up hurting herself.

Suddenly, as Lyra continued to speed down the interstate inspecting each and every one of the trucks she passed her eyes darted out into the dark distance, where a lone truck was beginning to turn off the interstate to instead head down a road that Lyra hadn't noticed before, nor did she assume actually lead to anything notable except for the open desert and unique rock formations. For a brief moment, Lyra considered the possibility that it could be Mack heading down the badly lit road, taking into account the similar shape of the truck as well as the hailer lights that looked exactly like the ones on her own trailer. However, Lyra quickly discarded this idea when she caught sight of a signpost not far from the turnoff point with the words 'Miles to California' written on it, knowing that Mack would have no need to turn off the interstate if California was still ahead of them.

Still, while the truck in the distance definitely wasn't Mack its appearance did give Lyra an idea. Lyra knew that she needed to stop and take a few minutes to breathe and calm herself down, the fear of being alone on the interstate had quickly become too much for her and if she didn't take some time to collect herself soon she would end up crashing, in fact it was a miracle that she hadn't already found herself in an accident from how nervous and scared she was feeling. The turnoff from the interstate seemed to be the perfect spot for Lyra to take a breather, isolated and with a clear lack of traffic passing through it, meaning that if Lyra did park somewhere along the road then she would certainly be left alone until she was ready to continue looking for Mack. Lyra had made her decision, she would take the turn off and spend a few minutes calming herself down before she re-joined the interstate to restart the hunt for Mack.

Remembering that her steering wheel now made her tires turn in the opposite direction she imputed Lyra began turning her wheel to the left, drifting across the asphalt to the right as she passed the different lanes of the interstate until she finally reached the turnoff point. As soon as she reached her desired destination Lyra quickly put her foot down on the gas pedal, accelerating herself forward down the dimly lit road to nowhere while the lights of the interstate disappeared behind her. After a few moments of silently driving through the dark Lyra finally found a spot that she was happy with to park, far enough away from the interstate so that she wouldn't get hit accidentally in case anyone else came speeding around the turn off.

However much to her shock and horror, Lyra found that when she put her brake pedal down nothing happened, no matter how hard or how many times she slammed down the pedal Lightning's breaks refused to work. She was stuck driving down the desert road in near complete darkness going at almost 60 miles an hour with no way of stopping.

 _She couldn't stop. She couldn't stop._ **She couldn't stop.**

As Lightning continued to speed forward down the dark road the panic inside of Lyra began to rise once again, her hands shaking against Lightning's steering wheel like they had earlier only this time the tapping was much louder and offered Lyra no comfort to the silence surrounding her. All Lyra had wanted to do was park her car for a few moments so that she could calm down from her previous panic of being separated from Mack, driving along the interstate in a broken car and having a near death experience, but now that couldn't happen because her breaks had been cut, how had she not considered the possibility that her breaks would also be gone after finding out her steering no longer worked right. At least she was discovering this revelation now rather than on the track or on the interstate, the empty desert ensuring that she wouldn't hurt anyone by accident.

Lyra considered the option of veering Lightning off the road and onto the open desert, hoping that the sand and dirt would help decrease his speed even if only by a small amount, or that she could perhaps pull off a 360 degree turn once again like she had before earlier on the interstate. However, the road that Lyra was currently travelling down had absolutely no lighting to illuminate the asphalt leaving her unable to see any further than a few feet in front of her, Lyra really regretted ever removing Lightning's headlights now that she desperately needed them.

If she couldn't even see in front of herself than how could Lyra possibly see out into the open desert, she didn't know what awaited out in the dirt patch, the second she drove off the road she could find herself hitting a cactus or end up in a deep ditch with no way out. Lyra needed to find another way to slow down or she would simply have to wait it out until Lightning came to a stop naturally, hopefully if she ended up following the latter there would be enough road ahead of her to allow that to happen.

As Lyra continued to try and come up with some sort of plan, her current idea being to wait until Lightning naturally slowed to a stop and then hike until she found civilization or the interstate again whichever came first, a sudden appearance of movement in the distance caught her attention. Even though her vision was limited by the lack of light Lyra was able to clearly make out a large red dot moving about like a pendulum while the sound of a siren suddenly filled the air. It took Lyra a few seconds but as soon as she finally realised what the light and siren meant the panic that she felt began to grow, feelings of dread quickly joining the fear already present inside of her stomach.

A train. There was a train coming and Lyra had no means of slowing down before reaching the tracks. Was this really how her life would end, speeding down some unknown road until she crashed head first into a moving train, miles away from home while her loved ones remained unaware where she was or what was about to happen to her. Lyra had always envisioned herself living and leading a long and fulfilling life, achieving her dream of winning races and proving to everyone who had ever doubted her that they were wrong, that she could be a racer and win the Piston Cup. She had seen herself standing on podiums holding up trophies, having her name wrote down in the record books and being forced to retire when she started going grey because there was no way she would ever willingly give up and leave the racing world. But were all those dreams and fantasies about to be cut short before she even had the chance to finish her first racing season?

As Lightning continued to move closer and closer to the track Lyra the quick thinker that she was came up with an idea that might just save her life. At the speed Lightning was currently going they would crash into the train without a doubt, he wouldn't be able to stop in time to avoid the train, but if Lyra hit the gas there was a small chance that they might just narrowly miss getting run over, beating the train to the crossing before it became impossible to avoid the many carriages it was tugging along.

Lyra had no other choice but to hit the gas and at least attempt her crazy idea, if it failed then she would die but if she did nothing the outcome was the same, she had to at least try with everything she had to make the plan a success and live to race another day, to survive and win the Piston Cup like she had been dreaming about since she was a kid.

"YES!" Lyra screamed in relief as she narrowly avoided the moving train by literal inches, an overwhelming sense of happiness at being alive travelling all over her body as Lightning continued on down the road, the train now disappearing into the distance. It felt amazing and terrifying all at the same time knowing that she had survived by the skin of her teeth, to think a few moments prior Lyra had believed she was heading into certain death yet here she sat, her heart still beating in her chest at a mile a minute. In the span of around 48 hours Lyra had faced three close calls with death and survived through quick thinking and luck, her first experience had taken place during the massive crash at the final, her second encounter had occurred when she awoke on the interstate only to find a large truck barrelling towards her and now she had barely escaped being run over by a train in the middle of the night, perhaps the universe was trying to tell her something.

Returning her attention to the road rather than focus on her shaky breath and the sound of her thumping heart ringing in her ears Lyra noticed the truck that she had seen before travelling in the distance, heading off down the road somewhere towards the right. Deciding that following the truck would be the best and easiest way of finding civilisation and help Lyra waited until she was a good distance away from her turning point before beginning to turn her wheel, not wanting to be sent flying off the road from the speed she was going.

However, at that moment Lyra forgot that her tires now moved in the opposite direction that she turned her wheel, and quickly found herself speeding down the road to the left instead of the right like she had intended, now travelling away from possibly the only other person around for miles who could help her. Hopefully, Lyra would find a town or a house filled with people or a working telephone soon and get this whole mess sorted out, although knowing her current string of luck Lyra would most likely run out of gas or have to walk for miles before she found somewhere to stop and ask for help.

At least she had Lightning to keep her company.

* * *

"And most of you were there for the rest." Lyra spoke as she finished telling the lengthy tale of the events leading up to her arrival in the small town and the accidental destruction of its main and only road, fiddling with her thumbs beneath the witness box in an attempt to calm herself down the entire time. Lyra had moved to the box before she had begun telling her story at the instruction of Doc, whom Lyra hadn't looked at once since leaving Sally's side, afraid she would lose the remaining nerves she had left if she had to look at his handsome face.

As she had sat there spinning her story Lyra had stared out at the small sea of residence that were seated across from her in the benches, watching the looks of horror appear on each and every one of their faces and listening carefully to their many gasps of surprise as she retold the tale of the scariest moment of her life. How unfortunate was it that in the span of several hours she had gone through two near-death experiences, her foolishness on the track the other day and now losing control of Lightning on the highway the night before, she must have used up all her luck when she had been given a second chance at the final.

Bu the end of the tale it was very clear that the town's original view of Lyra, a hotshot punk who had deliberately driven into Radiator Springs to cause mischief and destruction, had completely changed, instead now seeing the young woman for who she truly was, an innocent victim just like their town's road. What had happened the night before had been an accident not an act of malice, Lyra couldn't be held accountable for what had happened and no one in the room wanted to charge her with a crime.

"Someone tried to kill you. Unless you purposely cut your own breaks and switched your wheel wires around?" Doc's voice suddenly spoke out to the silent courtroom, catching the attention of everyone and causing them all to turn and stare at him, including Lyra; who froze in fear when she came face to face with his cold blue eyes. Doc had been beyond angry when he had originally read the list of problems with the anonymous young woman's car just before he had walked into the courtroom, Guido and Luigi having dropped off their report that morning on their way to the courthouse.

As he had read the long list of faults and damages Doc knew immediately that what had happened hadn't been the redhead's fault, her car had been clearly been tampered with and the resulting destruction to the town's road had been caused as she tried to save herself from her out of control vehicle. He should have immediately walked to the courthouse and explained to the town that the speedster wasn't to blame, that their anger lied elsewhere with whoever had tried to end her life. However, Doc still had to find out what had happened to the young woman before she had managed to make her way to Radiator Springs, and so had decided that fear would be the best strategy to ensure that she told the truth, every slam of his cane on the courtroom floor and even the tone of his voice was carefully crafted to bring out a truth that had been more horrifying than he had ever imagined.

"No sir. My car was in perfect condition before we started the trip to California." Lyra replied with a quiet voice as she continued to stare at the good doctor's face, too afraid to look away though she did feel a wave of relief rush through her when she saw his eyes soften slightly at her words. Lyra had purposely left out the small detail that she was a famous racer, wanting to stay incognito for as long as possible in case the people of the town started treated her differently just because she was a celebrity, like the majority of people did whenever they saw her out and about outside of the track.

Instead of revealing who she actually was Lyra had twisted her tale slightly, telling the members of the town that Mack was simply her friend whom she had been travelling to California with, though rather than sitting with him in his truck like most people would she had opted to sit in the trailer with her car to make sure that nothing bad happened, though that plan had all gone down the drain after she accidentally fallen asleep. Everything that she had said had been completely true though missing some important elements to the overall story, her story of overcoming a near-death experience that never should have happened in the first place.

Before Doc had confirmed her suspicions that Lightning had been sabotaged Lyra had hoped that everything she had experienced the night before had been caused by her tired and terrified mind playing tricks on her, making her believe that Lightning had lost control while on the highway when in actuality nothing was wrong with him at all, that it was just her brain telling her that she had put her foot down on the breaks when she had really used the gas pedal or that she had turned the wheel left but had in fact turned it right; but Lyra now knew that wasn't the case.

Someone had tried to kill her and would have been successful in doing so if the events of the night before had never occurred, if she hadn't found herself suddenly on the interstate or accidentally causing the destruction of a seemingly forgotten small town's only road. If her journey to California had gone according to plan Lyra would have reached the Los Angeles International Speedway sometime that morning eager to start practising after hopefully being the first one of the competitors to arrive at the stadium.

Lyra would have hit the track the second that Mack had finished helping her load Lightning off the trailer, not bothering to give her car a quick once over to make sure that everything was fine before speeding off to practice, why would she have wasted her time checking on him when her Pit Crew had already given Lightning the all clear and deemed him to be in peak condition before the trip to California had begun. Lyra would have lost control of Lightning within seconds, most likely crashing headfirst into the side of the track after turning her wheel, having no idea that her wires had been crossed and unable to use her breaks she would have most likely died on impact or at least been badly injured enough that she would no longer be able to race in the final.

Who would have thought that such a terrifying experience that had nearly taken her life would have actually ended up saving it?

"Have her fix the road." Sally's voice suddenly rang out to the court, breaking the long silence that had enveloped the room after Lyra had confessed that Lightning had been alright before the journey had begun. Lyra immediately took to the idea that Sally had proposed, wanting to do everything she could to help the town that she had caused tremendous damage to, even if the damage had been accidental. However, Lyra had no idea how a person would fix a road or how long it took to complete the repairs, she wanted to do the right thing but the three-way tie was waiting for her in California, if things took too long she could miss the chance of achieving her dream. Perhaps if she was still there by Saturday morning they would be kind enough to let her leave for California to compete in the race, more than willing to come back straight after to finish the job she had started if the road wasn't complete.

"You're her lawyer and you want her to be punished after we've clearly just seen evidence that proves she's innocent." Doc replied as he continued to stare at Lyra, the pair having not looked away from each other for a moment while the others in the courtroom had seemed to disappear around them, as if they were the only two people left in the entire world. Doc didn't want to charge the captivating young woman in front of him with anything, not after hearing the story of what had happened to her only hours earlier in the dead of night, however the town's road had still been destroyed and the mysterious speedster while innocent was the culprit, as Radiator Spring's judge it was his duty to decide her fate, whether it be freedom or in his opinion undeserving community service.

"I still want to fix what I've done." Lyra told him, suddenly finding herself fuelled with a strong wave of courage to help her confront the man who continued to frighten her with how deeply his blue eyes seemed to peer into her soul. Lyra wanted to help the small town after the massive amounts of damage she had caused to their main and only paved road, she deserved to be punished for what she had done the night before even if it had all been an accident. "I might not have had control of my car but I still wreaked your town's road, let me help fix it."

"Come on Doc the town needs this, she's even willing to do it." Sally pleaded as she walked up to Doc, who had at last turned away from Lyra to instead face the blonde he had known for several years. The second that she got close enough to the bench Sally began sending Doc the biggest pair of puppy dog eyes that anyone had ever seen before, looking as though she was a little girl begging her parents to buy her a new toy she had taken a shine to at a store; in truth Lyra half expected the blonde to throw a tantrum if Doc wouldn't do as she asked.

"Sally I can't just-" Doc began to say as he looked down at the blonde lawyer however his words were quickly silenced when Sally suddenly cut him.

"I didn't want to have to do this Doc, but you leave me with no choice." Sally began as turned away from the bench and its occupants to instead face the rest of the town's population, slowly walking forwards towards the group of residence as the sound of her pale blue high heels clicking the wooden floor reached every corner of the courtroom. "Fellow citizens, you are all aware of our towns proud history."

"Here she goes again." Doc muttered quietly to himself so that no one else in the room would be able to hear him, however because of their incredibly close proximity Lyra had managed to hear the comment loud and clear, causing the young woman to quickly cover her mouth awkwardly with her still handcuffed hands in an attempt to hide the smile on her face and the small laugh she had let out.

"Radiator Springs, the glorious jewel strung on the necklace of Route 66, the mother road!" Sally continued on, having not noticed the redhead's laugh behind her. Radiator Springs, Lyra wasn't sure why but the name of the small town sounded familiar though she was 100% certain she had never visited before, perhaps back in her innocent youth she had once read the name in one of the many books she had absorbed during her school day; sitting inside of the library every chance she got rather than play or talk with the other students so that she could avoid myriad of bullies. "It is our job and our pleasure to take care of the travellers on our stretch of that road."


	5. Rewrite Finished

The rewrite is now complete with Chapter 5 being added onto chapter 4. Hope you guys like the new version. New content will be included in the next chapter so I hope you guys enjoy that. Until next time.


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